Sydney Barned, MD, was 33 years old and in her medical residency when she was diagnosed with stage 4 ALK-positive lung cancer. A year prior to diagnosis, she woke up with severe shortness of breath and decided she needed a chest X-ray. She was misdiagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics. It would take almost a year of symptoms such as spasmodic coughing and intermittent wheezing before she received a CT scan which initiated the quest for her diagnosis. Twice daily medications have kept her health in check for the last few years.
Barned, a hospitalist at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD, has spent the last 18 months working on the oncology ward (an assignment designed to keep her as protected at work from COVID-19 as possible). We talked to Barned about her diagnosis, what she tells her patients, and what people should know about lung cancer.
Did being a physician help you process your diagnosis?
I remember trying to wrap my head around the whole thing because I was young, healthy, and never smoked. Being a patient and a doctor is both good and bad. It was a lot of trying to balance what you’ve learned and also learning from what you’re going through. As a doctor, I knew that lung cancer has a poor prognosis. But, of course, that’s flawed because those studies had a lot to do with patients on old treatments—which did not apply to me.
How does your experience help you connect with your patients?
It has helped me become a better doctor because I’m able to identify with my patients more because I know what it is to be a patient myself. I can identify and call out their emotions. If I think they need to hear it, I tell them about my diagnosis.
I tell patients that I understand this may seem devastating, but getting a cancer diagnosis is not the end of the world. There are a lot of things that are being put in place. Listen to your doctors, keep positive, try to live healthy, and do your treatments. I also tell my lung cancer patients that whichever oncologist they’re going to they should ask about comprehensive biomarker testing.
Finally, what do you wish the public knew about lung cancer?
This stigma with lung cancer needs to go. Even if someone smokes and they get lung cancer it does not mean that they did this to themselves. People also need to know that not everyone gets lung cancer from smoking. Up to 20 percent of people who get lung cancer did not smoke.
We also need to change the narrative that lung cancer is an old person’s or a smoker’s disease. A lot of young never-smokers are getting lung cancer, and we need to get that narrative out there. Lung cancer deserves a lot more funding than it’s getting now. When you have lung cancer being the number one cancer killer but getting less funding than breast cancer by a lot then something’s wrong with that picture.
You can make a difference in breaking the stigma around lung cancer. Become an advocate and make your voice heard!
My wife’s exact sentiments… a life long non smoker who is recuperating from a second lobectomy as we speak. Her lung cancer was found luckily or by God’s intervention the first time 17 years ago thanks to a scan from a running injury. This time, she approached our G.P. around 10 months ago asking for another scan as it had been over 10 years since she had had any type of recheck. She was feeling fine at the time and running 25+ miles a week. The scan revealed a new tumor in the middle lobe of the same lung. Fortunately, she was able to have the tumor removed with the middle lobe and is now going through a regimen of chemo for extra cleanup I guess. Had she not had the premonition or whatever drove her to get another scan, she would face a much uglier lung cancer when the symptoms would have kicked in at some point.. Lung cancer is tricky… advocate for yourself if the medical community tells you it’s asthma or pneumonia or whatever and you think it may be something else. GO GET A SCAN!
Sydney, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I am an 8 year survivor. I lost my left lung to stage 3 squamous cell cancer. I was a smoker who quit smoking 9 years before being diagnosed. I thank the expertise of Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Grace of God, and many prayers of family, friends and even strangers for my survival. Getting diagnosed and getting to the best place for your care is critical. I am 80 years old, diagnosed at age 72 and I represent HOPE, for those facing this disease.
Sidney, you’re stunning! A runner and never smoker, a lesion showed up on my X-Ray during an annual physical in 2010. I had just made a great showing in my age group in a large half marathon. It wasn’t until 2013 that the lesion grew and was diagnosed as stage 3 ALK lung cancer. Today I’m extremely fortunate to be in great shape, not running because of a foot injury, but hiking, kayaking, doing whatever I wish. I’m still on oral medication and expect to remain on meds as long as I live. I am 78 but look and feel much younger. We are lucky to have this disease now and not 20 years ago when there were so few treatment options. I hope my progress can encourage and give hope to others, and I trust that your treatment will keep your disease at bay as mine has. You go, girl!
Chris