For nearly 12 years, the 53-year-old Peoria, Illinois native had endured cancer spreading throughout her body and six different treatment approaches, including surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. A massive tumor in her liver had grown to more than 10 centimeters (roughly the size of a bar of soap), compressing her stomach and making it difficult to eat. Cancer had also spread to other areas, including her right breast.

Then, a biomarker in Amundson's cancer helped unlock an entirely new possibility.

A team at OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria found a potential treatment that had never been approved for Amundson's specific disease. Getting it to her would require special permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

OSF secured that access in just two days.

Less than six weeks after Amundson began treatment, the tumor in her liver had shrunk by more than half its size.

For a woman who had been told she might have only months left, it meant something much bigger than numbers on a scan.

It meant hope.

"Dr. [Jun] Zhang has given me so much hope. I am Stage 4 and was running out of options. I wasn't sure what to do," Amundson says. "I found Dr. Zhang, and he told me about some clinical trials and a medication that could help shrink the tumors, and [the tumors] had an overwhelmingly positive response [to treatment]."

Jun Zhang, MD, PhD, is vice president of oncology research at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute

A 12-year cancer journey

Amundson's cancer journey began in late 2014. While undergoing surgery on her ovaries, doctors discovered cancer. Two weeks later, doctors also found cancer in her right lung, which was ultimately identified as the primary source of her metastatic disease.

Within a month, Amundson underwent a right middle lobectomy, which required removing part of her right lung, and then began chemotherapy.

Amundson, a nurse practitioner with training in thoracic surgery, eventually moved to California.

Then she began falling while hiking.

Further testing revealed the cancer had returned and spread. Over time, disease was found in areas including her sciatic nerve, right breast and liver.

Amundson underwent multiple biopsies as the cancer progressed. One measurement doctors examined was Ki-67, a marker used to assess how quickly tumor cells are multiplying.

"For Joy, she got multiple biopsies because of the disease progression. The range was between 10-20%, and the last biopsy in the breast lesion was 40%, that's why we call it atypical carcinoid/high-grade neuroendocrine tumor," Dr. Zhang explains.

After six different treatment approaches failed to control the disease, Amundson needed another option.

By then, she had moved back to her hometown of Peoria to be closer to family. It was there that a conversation with her parents would help point her toward a new possibility.

Finding an answer in Peoria

Amundson was born and raised in Peoria – and was born at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, the same campus on which the OSF Cancer Institute is located.

Her parents encouraged her to seek care there, where she met Dr. Zhang. The two quickly found common ground. Amundson's background as a nurse practitioner included training in thoracic surgery, one of Dr. Zhang's areas of expertise.

With Amundson running out of conventional treatment options, Dr. Zhang and his team began looking deeper into the biology of her cancer for another possibility.

"Looking for some specific biomarkers and seeing if we can find a drug targeting those biomarkers," Dr. Zhang points out. "That biomarker is called DLL3. In her case, it came back positive. I was actually excited about that because there is a drug called tarlatamab used in small-cell lung cancer, and it has given us revolutionary results."

Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) is a protein found on the surface of certain cancer cells, including small-cell lung cancer cells.

Tarlatamab is a type of immunotherapy that helps the body's immune system fight cancer. It works by attaching to DLL3 on cancer cells and CD3 on immune cells called T cells. This brings the two cells together, allowing the immune system to attack the cancer cells.

The finding gave Dr. Zhang a potential target – and a potential treatment.

FDA approval in two days

Dr. Zhang and the clinical research team at the OSF Cancer Institute Breakthrough Treatment Center submitted a request through the FDA's Expanded Access program, which can allow someone with a serious or immediately life-threatening disease to receive an investigational therapy outside of a clinical trial when certain criteria are met.

In Amundson's case, OSF pursued single-patient expanded access for tarlatamab with support from the drug's manufacturer. They received approval in two days.

Amundson received her first doses at OSF Saint Francis, where she could be closely monitored. As treatment continued and she tolerated the drug, later treatments took place as outpatient appointments at OSF Cancer Institute.

Then came the scan.

"The fourth dose we did in an outpatient setting. And guess what? She's able to tolerate the treatment so well, and we just got a scan done [at less than six weeks], and when we opened the scans, everyone was shocked and extremely excited," Dr. Zhang says. "The tumor in the liver that was about 10 centimeters, has now shrunk to between four to five centimeters – over a 50% reduction."

The change wasn't confined to an image on a screen.

Amundson could feel it.

"My symptoms have improved dramatically. I don't have nearly as much pain. I was having trouble eating before and a lot of abdominal pain with that, which is now gone," Amundson says. "That's dramatically improved my quality of life."

Her pain has decreased, reducing her need for medication. Eating has also become easier.

For Amundson, who struggled to tolerate chemotherapy, the treatment has also meant avoiding some of the side effects she previously experienced.

Treatment will continue every other week as long as her cancer continues responding and she is able to tolerate the medication.

More time

For Dr. Zhang, Amundson's case illustrates how rapidly cancer treatment is evolving.

New therapies and an expanding understanding of tumor biomarkers are increasingly giving cancer teams opportunities to look beyond where a cancer originated and investigate the specific circumstances that may make an individual tumor vulnerable to treatment.

For Amundson, however, the science ultimately comes down to something much simpler.

Time.

"I hope to have more years with my family; my kids, my friends and my husband. That's my main goal: to be as healthy as I can be, not take it for granted and live every day like it's my last," Amundson says. "I was told I had six months to live before I saw Dr. Zhang. He said, 'Oh, I think I have something for you.' He's been a blessing, and I'm very privileged to see him."

Learn more about OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute at osfhealthcare.org/cancer.

Learn more about the exciting work of the OSF Breakthrough Treatment Center at breakthrough.osfhealthcare.org.

Joy Amundson Video Interview Clips

Dr. Jun Zhang Video Interview Clips

OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute exterior b-roll

Pope Leo XIV’s recent lung cancer diagnosis and surgery are drawing attention to the importance of early detection and the need for people at increased risk to talk with their doctors about screening.

Although the diagnosis has raised concerns about the pontiff’s health, medical experts say there is an important takeaway for the public: Lung cancer does not always cause symptoms in its early stages but finding it before it spreads can significantly improve a person’s chances of successful treatment.

Priya Andanamala, MD, a medical oncologist at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria, Illinois, specializes in lung cancer. She says the pontiff’s case underscores why people at increased risk should not put off screening.

“As sad as the news is, I think it encourages all of our patients that are under a high-risk category to get that screening because if we are able to identify these lesions at an early stage, we are able to cure most patients. We’re able to cure them with surgery and chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy,” Dr. Andanamala stresses.

Pope Leo underwent a lobectomy, a procedure that removes one lobe of the lung. The lungs contain multiple lobes, with three in the right lung and two in the left. The surgery can help doctors determine the type of cancer, assess whether it has spread to nearby lymph nodes and identify characteristics that can guide further treatment.

Dr. Andanamala says the information gathered during surgery and subsequent pathology testing helps doctors determine whether additional treatment may be beneficial.

While the pontiff’s complete pathology findings and cancer stage were not available at publication time, Dr. Andanamala emphasizes earlier-stage lung cancers can often be treated with the goal of curing the disease. The appropriate treatment and prognosis depend on factors including tumor size, lymph node involvement and the cancer’s molecular characteristics.

A personalized approach to care

That molecular profiling allows for what she calls a more personalized approach to cancer care.

“Trying to determine what biomarkers the cancer has and understanding the molecular landscape, there are many different mutations that, thankfully, we have approved targeted therapy for that are highly effective. So, all of these can be found with comprehensive molecular profiling that we run on the surgical specimen.”

That profile can also help determine if a patient is eligible for certain clinical trials.

Rachael Davis, MD, a physician at OSF HealthCare who specializes in lung conditions, says people should also understand that finding a lung nodule does not automatically mean they have cancer.

“In the Midwest, many people have lung nodules that are not cancer.” Dr. Davis explains, “There’s a fungus in our soil called histoplasmosis that predisposes people to lung nodules, so the rates of benign, meaning non-cancerous or not malignant, lung nodules is much higher in the Midwest than in other parts of the country.”

Doctors evaluate nodules based on factors such as size, growth over time, appearance and location. Comparing current scans with older imaging can help determine whether a nodule is concerning and whether it requires monitoring, a biopsy or additional evaluation.

Know if you have risk factors

Smoking remains a major risk factor for lung cancer, but it is not the only one. Radon exposure, workplace exposure to certain chemicals and dusts, secondhand smoke, asbestos and family history can also contribute to risk.

Dr. Davis says people with a strong family history of lung cancer, particularly among relatives who never smoked, should discuss their circumstances with their primary care provider.

“Most cases of lung cancer are completely asymptomatic,” Dr. Davis stresses. “There are no symptoms early, and so if we wait until there's symptoms in a patient, we've waited too long.”

For people who meet established eligibility criteria, annual low-dose CT scans are the standard screening approach. At OSF, Dr. Andanamala says providers are also offering the First Look lung blood test at 49 locations as another way to help reach certain people at risk.

“It is currently not an alternative for a low-dose scan, but if this is something that is easier for patients to come in for, and if we’re identifying something that is concerning, then typically we’re following up with further testing.”

Illinois has considerable room to improve screening participation. According to the American Lung Association, only about 17% of eligible people in Illinois receive lung cancer screening compared with a national rate of approximately 20%.

Screening for early detection can improve treatment outcomes

Screening rates within OSF are higher.

“If the Pope’s case teaches us anything, it’s that we need to get screened for lung cancer. OSF is a national leader in lung cancer screening at 50% systemwide, but there’s still 50% of our qualified patients who are not being screened,” says Ryan Luginbuhl, vice president of the oncology service line at OSF HealthCare.

To date, 275 people have undergone the First Look blood test at OSF, and 133 were referred for further evaluation through a CT scan. To date, 76 people referred, completed scans. Of those, six were referred for more testing, and of them, two are seeing oncologists. One has received a lung cancer diagnosis.

OSF is also one of the largest medical provider in the Midwest offering robotic bronchoscopy. Dr. Davis says the minimally invasive procedure allows for less painful and more accurate lung biopsies.

“We’re able to biopsy multiple lung nodules at the same time during the same procedure and reduce the need for the patient to come back for multiple procedures.”

This next-level approach is also allowing for use of fluorescent dye during surgery to locate and highlight nodules and spare valuable, non-cancerous lung tissue, improving outcomes and patients’ lung capacity.

Pope Leo’s diagnosis serves as a reminder that even people who appear healthy can develop lung cancer. The most important next step is to understand your risk, talk with a primary care provider and determine whether screening is appropriate.

Find out if you are a candidate for lung cancer screening with this short assessment.

Learn more about the full range of services available at OSF Cancer Institute.

Video clips with Dr. Priya Andanamala

Video clips with Dr. Rachael Davis

B-roll-Pope Leo's lung cancer diagnosis

A new generation of 3D Virtual Reality (VR) imaging technology at OSF HealthCare is giving surgeons a clearer view of cancer than ever before – and in some cases, completely changing surgical plans. For OSF HealthCare thoracic surgeon Richard Anderson, MD, that level of insight recently made the difference between removing part of a patient’s chest wall and preserving it entirely.

Dr. Anderson, chair and Norman Estes Professor of Surgery at University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria, says the leap from standard imaging to 3D modeling is transformative for surgeons.

A better view

“So the real difference between a 2D and 3D is, just imagine looking at something on a piece of paper with two different pictures, looking at it from side to side, as opposed to having a model in your hand and being able to take that model and move it all around in all different directions, upside down, inside out, even open up things within the model and look at it. It’s really the difference between 2D and 3D.” Dr. Anderson adds, “It’s really quite impressive.”

The technology allows his team to isolate tumors, peel away layers of anatomy, and examine the intricate relationships among bones, vessels, and muscle before they ever enter the operating room. That clarity is especially crucial in complex thoracic oncology, where anatomy is delicate, variable and easily injured.

For Dr. Anderson and others who use 3D imaging, it increases the surgeon’s confidence.

“In the more complex oncology cases, it can make a big difference. It can help the surgeon really identify what structures they have to worry about during the operation, what structures they might have to sacrifice, before they actually do the operation and gives them a little bit more level of confidence going into the operation than probably they would have before.”

A tumor in a rare location

That level of detail proved critical in a recent complex thoracic oncology case. Thoracic surgery presents unique challenges because of the delicate and complex anatomy of the chest.

“The arteries aren't made the same, and so they're easier to tear. They're much more delicate. Lung tissue is sometimes like tissue paper, too. It’s easy to injure and tear. You have got to be very careful when you do the dissections in thoracic surgery. That's what makes it so challenging.”

Dr. Anderson treated Jake Wilson, a 69-year-old retired farmer and former prison guard from Central Illinois. Wilson’s case was challenging. He was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer and in August of 2025 began a series of chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the aggressively growing tumor.

Still, as surgery approached, Dr. Anderson was challenged with removing a nearly six‑centimeter tumor (about the size of a small egg) situated high in the chest, closely hugging the first three ribs. Standard 2D scans suggested the cancer had invaded the bone – a scenario that would typically require removing three ribs to ensure the cancerous tumor was completely removed.

Seeing is believing

But when Wilson became the first adult patient with lung cancer to have his case analyzed using advanced 3D modeling and virtual reality, the picture changed dramatically. The technology revealed that his ribs were not invaded at all. The tumor, though large and aggressive, was confined to muscle.

Sister M. Pieta Keller, Connor Davey, and Reid Jockisch, innovation engineers at Jump Simulation worked to segment the tumor for 3D viewing in virtual reality. Sister M. Pieta recently showed Wilson the 3D rendering. It was something he’ll never forget as she displayed his chest wall anatomy in vivid color and manipulated the images to reveal why Dr. Anderson could spare all three ribs.

“That was one of my biggest fears was losing my ribs,” Wilson explained. “Just the concept of that,” he said as his voice trailed off. Sister M. Pieta explained, “And your recovery and your pain would have been a lot higher,” to which Wilson responded, “I’m sure.” Sister M. Pieta added, “So this was quite the gift.”

After years of lung scans due to his history of smoking, seeing the vivid digital model after his successful surgery made the size and seriousness of the tumor undeniably real. Having only retired from farming six months earlier, Wilson admitted that going into the surgery, he was really scared.

“That put the fear of God into me, needless to say, because I’m an active person. I’m a farmer. I thought, ‘I could see being debilitated for the rest of my life.’”

A recovery that surprised everyone

The new imaging technology altered not only the surgical approach, but Wilson’s experience afterward. Instead of the severe pain typically expected after chest wall removal, his discomfort was minimal; it was largely limited to the area where an intercostal muscle was removed.

Wilson required only mild pain medication and never needed supplemental oxygen after losing half of his lung, something his care team described as highly unusual.

Even more astonishing, follow‑up imaging showed his remaining lung tissue had expanded far faster than expected. His post‑surgical biopsies revealed a remarkable result: the tumor was completely non‑viable (dead) at the time of removal.

A message about screening

Today, Wilson is cancer‑free and sharing his story. He credits many people along the way, including his primary care doctor, who five years ago, when Wilson was still smoking, encouraged him to get an annual CT screening to detect lung cancer.

“I thought, ‘I’m the one that’s stupid enough to do this to myself I ought to at least be smart enough to use a little preventive maintenance.’” He added, “And thank God I did because I might already be gone.”

But above all, Wilson returns to the strength of his faith which he credits with leading him to Dr. Anderson and his care team at OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria and OSF Cancer Center in Bloomington. He is sharing his story to show the power of prayer and faith, and to instill hope.

“I know for a fact that the most important thing a person can have in these ordeals is hope because without hope you give up. And this is one time you can’t afford to give up because if you give up, you’re done,” Wilson declared.

For Dr. Anderson, the case represents the promise of 3D technology not just to guide surgeons, but to change outcomes. He calls that, “A good day at work.” And for Wilson, it represents something even bigger: a second chance he intends to use to encourage others to seek preventive screenings, face fear with hope and share gratitude for every day.

Video clips with Dr. Richard Anderson

Video clips with oncology patient Jake Wilson

B-roll of 3D imaging and Dr. Anderson

In the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, OSF ranks in the 99.2 percentile for outcomes after lung cancer surgery. This places OSF in the top 15 lung cancer programs nationwide.

While a lot of this work has been done for years, the opening of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria, Illinois, has added to the quality of care for patients across the Midwest. OSF and the University of Illinois College of Medicine-Peoria (UICOMP) have also expanded surgical capabilities in the Peoria region. Over 90% of all thoracic surgeries are minimally invasive. This means smaller incisions, quicker recoveries and less pain. 

Richard Anderson, MD, FACS, is the Chair and Norman Estes Professor at UICOMP, a professor of clinical surgery, as well as a thoracic surgeon with OSF HealthCare.

Dr. Anderson says patients with cancer now have a dedicated CT scanner, MRI and PET (positron emission tomography) scanner specifically for cancer. This allows results and diagnoses to be given faster than ever before, which allows a treatment plan to be created much more quickly. 

"We also brought new technology when we opened up the new (OSF Cancer Institute) building. We brought the robotic bronchoscopy ion robot, which allows us to be able to biopsy smaller lesions more accurately," Dr. Anderson says. "It lets us be able to do more advanced staging in people with lung cancer, which we weren't able to do before." 

Medicare didn't approve lung cancer screening tests until 2016. While OSF has offered lung cancer screenings since 2015, a recent collaboration with DELFI Diagnostics Inc. was launched, aiming at reducing lung cancer rates. It's a blood test which started in 18 OSF locations, with plans to expand across the entire Ministry. If the blood test indicates a potential concern, the patient will undergo further testing through a low-dose CT scan (LDCT).

"Our screening programs we do are low-dose, and that's really what a screening test means. That it has low risk and gets us good, reliable results. Plus, it's something that can be repeated, if necessary, while posing a minimal risk to patients," Dr. Anderson says. 

A cancer board, which is a team comprised of leaders in thoracic surgery, oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology and pulmonary medicine, meets every week to discuss the best way forward in terms of care for patients with cancer that are being seen. The lung cancer program also allows cancer navigators to follow patients along the journey, providing care every step of the way. 

The ion robot care is going to continue to expand. On average six biopsies are done a week currently at OSF Saint Francis in Peoria. By mid-2025, that number should quadruple. Proton beam therapy is another major care option for patients with cancer. 

"We're able to give radiation in much more concentrated doses at a very fixed point, with less damage to surrounding tissue. This helps us take care of cancer in patients who may not be the best surgical candidates," Dr. Anderson says. "And they still get excellent results with that type of therapy. With the new proton beam therapy, that adds even more of that potential as we move forward in the future as well." 

“The scariest part of it”

"There's usually no symptoms in early-stage lung cancer, it's usually asymptomatic. When people really start to develop symptoms of a chronic cough, coughing up blood, or having an increased shortness of breath, usually that means the cancer has spread or has gotten bigger," Dr. Anderson says. "Instead of being an early-stage cancer where they'd have a very good survival rate, it's become an advanced-stage cancer, and their survival rates have gone down. However, some of the newer drugs have helped us improve the survival rate in more advanced-stage cancers than we could 10-15 years ago."

OSF has been participating in the Society of Thoracic Surgery since 2006. 

"We submit our results to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database. For years, we've been a top performer in that database," Dr. Anderson says. "We're as respected when it comes to the database as some of the major places you would probably name."

To learn more about the OSF lung cancer program, visit the OSF HealthCare website.

Video Interview Clips

Introducing the Intuitive Ion Robot, a minimally invasive way to biopsy a patient’s lungs and get them answers more efficiently.

"Robotic bronchoscopy has really become the way of the future in terms of lung nodule diagnosis. It allows us to biopsy very small nodules (dense areas of tissue, or spots)," says Rachael Davis, MD, a pulmonologist with OSF HealthCare. "We can biopsy lung nodules that were not able to be biopsied previously because they were so small. It also allows us to biopsy nodules that are far out on the edge of the lungs that were unreachable before."

The goal of the Ion technology is primarily to diagnose lung cancer early. However, it also gives patients with non-cancerous lung nodules peace of mind. The Ion Robot can stage lung cancer as well. 

"We are hoping to diagnose lung cancer while it is very small, at a very early stage, and provide people the opportunity for either surgical or radiation cure of their cancer. That's our number one goal," Dr. Davis says. "But we do have quite a few patients who have lung nodules, and we don't know what they are. So, we're able to provide them with an answer that says, 'this is what your lung nodule is, and it's not cancer.’”

If a person has a history of smoking or one of their family members has received a lung cancer diagnosis, Dr. Davis says it’s important to get screened.

"Early-stage lung cancer often is asymptomatic. They have no cough, no shortness of breath or anything else. The most important thing we can do about lung cancer is to encourage people to get screened," Dr. Davis says. "Anyone who has a smoking history should talk with their primary care provider or lung doctor about whether they qualify for lung cancer screening. With that, we can find very small lung nodules and diagnose them early."

Screening remains the greatest tool to cure lung cancer. Some nodules used to be biopsied using a needle from outside the body. The robotic bronchoscopy allows the team to biopsy it from the inside in a much safer way, preventing possible complications. When a lung nodule is diagnosed at an earlier stage, it's much more likely to cure the patient. 

"A lung cancer screening is very simple. It's a low-dose CAT scan of the lungs. Most lung cancer screenings are covered by insurance. It's a two-minute procedure," Dr. Davis says. "You get scheduled for a CAT scan. You come in and there's no contrast or IV required. You come in, get your CAT scan, and it's read within 24 hours." 

The OSF Lung & Pulmonology team has doubled the number of patients they see each week since launching the technology one year ago at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. While the team currently does six biopsies a week, the plan is to perform three to four biopsies five days a week by mid-2025. 

Initially, most patients are cared for at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute. The medical team will then refer patients for the Ion Robot biopsy, keeping the patient on one hospital campus. 

If cancerous nodules are found in the patient's lungs, they will be referred to the OSF multi-disciplinary team for further treatment. This includes a surgeon who decides if the lung nodule can be surgically removed and cured. There is also a medical oncologist who can advise if chemotherapy or immunotherapy is needed. Lastly, a radiation oncologist is part of the team. They can provide radiation treatment if necessary. 

Dr. Davis says as the OSF Cancer Institute impact grows across the OSF Ministry, the Ion Robot technology will spread to other markets. According to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, OSF HealthCare ranks in the 99.2 percentile in quality outcomes after lung cancer surgery for all lung surgery programs in the United States.

OSF Cancer Institute offers lung cancer screening events throughout the year. To learn more about lung cancer prevention, and how to get connected with OSF Lung & Pulmonology, visit the OSF HealthCare website.

Video Interview Clips

B-roll

Fall and winter could be renamed “coughing season” with seasonal illnesses in the air. But there’s more to coughing than the brief but annoying impact on your day.

Some coughing is normal. But you should see a health care provider quickly when you cough up things you shouldn’t.

The basics: Why do you cough?

Aminat Ogun, MD, a family medicine physician at OSF HealthCare, says coughing is one way your body protects your lungs and airways from irritants. You expel the bad stuff out of our system, she says.

Some everyday things that can make you cough: breathing in smoke, allergies and mucus dripping down to your throat and irritating it. Or, you may just wake up in the morning and cough a few times to lighten your chest. These shouldn’t alarm you, Dr. Ogun says.

“We have cough receptors in our airways and lungs,” Dr. Ogun explains. “If we have mucus or an irritant, there’s a signal sent to our brain. The brain activates those receptors to have the cough action happen. So that’s why you clear your throat or cough in the morning. You’re trying to clear out your airways.”

If your cough is associated with an illness (like a cold, flu, RSV, COVID, bronchitis or pertussis, also called whooping cough) or a chronic condition (like asthma or COPD), you should be seeing a provider as often as needed to learn how to manage things.

Coughing up things you shouldn’t

Watch for signs that your cough may be linked to a more serious problem, Dr. Ogun says.

• Mucus: Our airways produce mucus to trap irritants, Dr. Ogun says. So it’s not out of the ordinary to cough up mucus from time to time. But if the mucus is thick or a different color (green or yellow), it could be a sign of pneumonia or bronchitis.
  
  “When it’s persistent [cough with mucus] and it’s affecting your breathing, you definitely want to be seen [by a provider,]” Dr. Ogun says.
   
• Vomit: Dr. Ogun says sometimes, you just cough hard enough to bring up some vomit. If it’s a “one-off,” as she calls it, you should still see a provider, but it may not be cause for great concern. But persistent vomiting while coughing could be a sign of whooping cough, acid reflux or aspiration (when food or drink gets into the lungs).
   
• Blood: Coughing blood brings a high level of concern, Dr. Ogun says.
  
  “Sometimes you have the common cold, you’re coughing for a long period and you irritated your airways. Maybe you nick the capillary artery [leading to coughing blood.] That’s fine,” Dr. Ogun says. “But more serious conditions would be a blood clot in the lung or tuberculosis.”
  
  Heart failure, lung cancer or infections are also associated with coughing up blood.
   

Diagnosis and treatment

When you see a provider for an abnormal cough, they’ll ask about your health history, specifically about your cough. How long have you been coughing? Did something trigger it? What are you coughing up? Do you have other symptoms, like a fever?

“Then the provider could do a physical examination. They look at the back of your throat. They listen to your lungs to see if they hear anything concerning. Depending on what they find, they could order a chest X-ray or a CT scan to see what’s going on inside your chest,” Dr. Ogun says.

Treatment will depend on what the provider finds. For example, acid reflux can be tamped down by an antacid or a proton pump inhibitor (PPI). For an infection like pneumonia, you’ll get an antibiotic. If it is just an irritating tickle in your throat, you may get a steroid like Flonase.

What you can do

Some advice from Dr. Ogun to ensure coughs don’t derail your health:

• Parents should keep a close eye on kids and their coughing.
   
• No matter the age, don’t shake off one instance of a bad cough and assume things will go back to normal. See a provider right away.
   
• While vaccines don’t prevent coughing, Dr. Ogun says they are critically important to stomp out the illnesses associated with coughing. Talk to your health care provider about when you’re due for flu, COVID, RSV, pneumonia and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) vaccines.
  
  “Pertussis is dangerous in immunocompromised people and kids,” Dr. Ogun warns. “RSV is highly contagious, as well. It’s life-threating in infants and older adults.
  
  “What vaccines do is help prevent getting to the very severe stage [of an illness,]” she adds. “You’re trying to prevent ending up in the hospital. You’re also reducing the risk of infection. And you’re protecting people around you who may be sicker than you.”
   
• Daily hygiene habits also go a long way. Sneeze or cough into your elbow or a tissue. Wash your hands often. Stay home and away from others when sick. Again, these don’t prevent coughs. But they can help prevent the spread of illness that brings those rough coughing fits.

Interview clips

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OSF HealthCare, a 16-hospital integrated health system that serves patients in Illinois and Michigan, and DELFI Diagnostics, Inc., a developer of accessible blood-based tests that deliver a new way to enhance cancer detection, today announced a collaboration to utilize DELFI’s FirstLook Lung blood-based cancer screening test to help improve screening rates. DELFI's collaboration with OSF was recently highlighted by the Biden Cancer Moonshot to expand accessibility to lung cancer screening.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths both domestically and globally, and studies show that proactive annual screening can reduce death rates by 20% or more.

Through focused outreach initiatives, OSF HealthCare has already guided 35% of the Ministry’s eligible patients in Illinois to receive a low-dose CT scan (LDCT), the standard of care for lung cancer early detection. The goal is to further increase screening among eligible OSF patients by incorporating the FirstLook Lung liquid biopsy test into the primary care setting. The test will be offered at 18 locations initially, with plans to make it OSF Ministry-wide within a year.

“FirstLook Lung, because it is a simple blood test, offers a way to improve lung cancer screening in communities not currently receiving it, and provides a result that can help patients and their doctors decide together about proceeding with an LDCT scan,” said Peter B. Bach, MD, DELFI’s Chief Medical Officer. “The goal is to detect the possibility of cancer early through this test that is easy to incorporate into the routine blood work of eligible patients who have not yet been screened. We are proud to partner with OSF HealthCare to improve the health of the communities they serve.”

The test works by evaluating patterns of DNA fragments in the blood that reveal the presence of lung cancer. In an independent validation, FirstLook Lung was shown to have 80% sensitivity in a screening population, including reliable detection of the earliest stages of the disease. The test also demonstrated a negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.8%, a measure of how unlikely it is that lung cancer will be detected by LDCT if the FirstLook Lung test returns a ‘Not Elevated’ result. 

“Early detection of lung cancer is key to improving patient outcomes, and we are confident that innovative, accessible new screening approaches like FirstLook Lung will move the needle on lung cancer screening rates among our patients,” said James McGee, MD, radiation oncologist and founding director of the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute.  “We are encouraged that FirstLook Lung’s advanced technology will not only offer our patients a simpler way to enter the screening funnel but will also give our practitioners the accurate data needed to make the right decision about the next steps in lung cancer detection for each patient.”

Learn more about the service available through the OSF Cancer Institute by calling 1-844-OSF-4-HOPE.

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According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., accounting for about 1 in 5 of all cancer deaths. More than 74% of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at late stages, leading to a survival rate of just 5%. But when caught early and treated, the survival rate spikes to 92%. That’s why early detection is so important.

OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Ill., recently performed its first ever electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB), a minimally invasive procedure for patients. This allows doctors to find the smallest suspicious lung masses that require biopsy.

The technology used is called ILLUMISITE™ platform by Medtronic. 

Mirza Ali, MD, is a pulmonologist at OSF Saint Anthony, and one of two physicians trained to perform the ENB.

“The easiest way to describe this procedure is that it's essentially like a GPS system for the lungs. You can't really biopsy things that you can't see with the camera inside someone's lungs,” he says. “This system allows you to biopsy things that are way deeper inside the lung, than you would otherwise be able to do with other techniques from the inside, or even biopsy through the chest wall itself.”

According to Dr. Ali, the procedure is not new, but recent technological enhancements have been integrated into the traditional bronchoscopy. This technology gives a pulmonologist a roadmap to the lungs in real time, he adds, providing quality lung tissue samples. 

“In the past, we would use other technologies available to us, but there was really no way to guide where you wanted your biopsy tools to go without necessarily having a GPS system,” says Dr. Ali. “You would have your regular CAT scan and you would use that to get a sense of where you needed to go and looking with a different form of ultrasound. You would have to switch tools in the middle of the procedure to be able to do the biopsy itself which comes with its own consequences.”

Dr. Ali stresses that ENB is a benefit to both the patient and physician. “It's more effective in the sense that it may give you the diagnosis, but it really saves patients having to undergo more invasive biopsies where they would have to stick a needle through the outside of the chest inside the lung itself,” he says. 

ENB works like this. The patient is placed on a board that contains various sensors and is put to sleep under general anesthesia much like surgery. Several more sensors are placed on top of the patient, which allows for the software to create a three-dimensional map of the patient’s lungs, which in combination with a CAT scan allows for the development of the roadmap that guides the physician.

The procedure is performed in an operating room and typically takes 30 to 60 minutes.  There is also a pathologist in the room observing the biopsy samples in real time.

The real benefit to this procedure is that the sooner smaller nodules are biopsied, early-stage cancers are diagnosed sooner, which means a quicker path to treatment.

“It's a game changer in the sense that patients used to have to get more invasive biopsies,” says Dr. Ali. “Now they don't have to undergo more invasive procedures and risk of complications like lung collapse or bleeding into the chest. It's a safe way to do this procedure. And we get a good diagnosis and good tissue that oncologists need to make cancer treatment decisions for patients.”

 

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