Lung cancer accounts for one-fourth of all cancer deaths in the United States. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for men and women worldwide.

The earlier we diagnose lung cancer, the higher the chance of cure. Most lung cancers are non-small cell (or NSCLC) and account for almost 85 percent of all lung cancers.

About one-fourth of all patients who are diagnosed with NSCLC have resectable disease. However, from 30 percent to 55 percent of patients who undergo surgery with curative intent ultimately experience recurrence and die from their disease.

If we diagnose NSCLC early, surgery is the treatment of choice. We commonly give chemotherapy and immunotherapy after surgery to kill microscopic cells and that has shown to improve survival and increase cure rate. Still, cancer can recur and kill the patient.

A landmark study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). In this study, patients with stage 1B to 3A were randomized to be treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy or chemotherapy alone for two months and then the patient was taken to surgery.

Among 358 patients in the trial, the median event-free survival (EFS) was 31.6 months for patients randomly assigned to the combination of the immune checkpoint inhibitor or immunotherapy nivolumab and chemotherapy, compared with 20.8 months for patients assigned to chemotherapy alone.

This sort of immunotherapy in addition to chemotherapy did not add any significant serious side effects. Immunotherapy boosts the patient’s immune system and then the immune system kills cancer. It does not cause nausea, vomiting, hair loss or low blood count. It is usually better tolerated.

More interesting was at the time of surgery, almost 1 out of 4 (24 percent) of the patients on combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy had no cancer left. This is amazing and unprecedented.

A lot more research is done in this area. At the same time, advances like these really help. After a long time, we have a new and powerful weapon against lung cancer and more people with lung cancers are being cured due to it. This is just the beginning. A lot more new drugs are in the research pipeline that are extremely promising and will likely change the course of cancer treatment.

If somebody is diagnosed with lung cancer, he or she should see a medical oncologist before surgery is done and after surgery to get the best care. New such advances are happening on a regular basis.

Dr. Sunil Gandhi is a hematologist and oncologist. He is the volunteer medical adviser of the Citrus Unit of American Cancer Society. Write to 521 N. Lecanto Highway, Lecanto, FL 34461, email sgandhi@tampabay.rr.com or call 352-746-0707.

CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — A driver in Citrus County led deputies on a "slow-speed" pursuit on Easter Sunday, even letting a passenger out during the chase and ramming a deputy's patrol car head-on, according to law enforcement.

Sometime after 1:30 p.m., Citrus County sheriff's deputies attempted to make a traffic stop on a car in the area of W. Venable Street and 7 Rivers Drive in Crystal River. Deputies said the gold-colored Dodge pickup truck was bearing a Tennessee tag, both of which were confirmed to be stolen.

However, deputies say when they conducted the stop, the driver later identified as 39-year-old Michael James Dailey of Lecanto, Florida, did not stop and a pursuit ensued.

Deputies said throughout the chase, Dailey briefly stopped the car multiple times and took off after each stop. During one of his stops, deputies said he let out a passenger who was able to safely exit the car. When authorities spoke with the woman, she told them Dailey "was high on methamphetamine" and had a gun in the truck.

As the pursuit continued, deputies said Dailey tried to hit several deputies' patrol cars. He even rammed one patrol car head-on, Citrus County Sheriff's Office said.

The chase came to a close in the business plaza of Meadowcrest when deputies deployed stop sticks to deflate the truck's tires. In a final attempt to get away, Dailey tried to drive over a rock embankment but was not able to and the car was immobilized. The pursuit lasted about 45 minutes.

After refusing to listen to deputies' demands to exit the truck and claiming to have a firearm, Citrus County called in the SWAT team. After 45 minutes of negotiations, SWAT team members deployed a flash-bang with little effect and eventually fired two "less-lethal" gas rounds into the truck.

Dailey then surrendered and was arrested.

"Dailey showed a blatant disregard for law enforcement today," Sheriff Mike Prendergast said. "His actions put our deputies' lives in jeopardy and that of our citizens."

The 39-year-old man is charged with aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer without violence, aggravated flee/elude law enforcement from the scene of a crash with damage, theft of a vehicle and driving with license suspended or revoked.

The passenger in the car, identified as Betty Hall, 61 of Lecanto, Florida, was also arrested. She was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

The sheriff's office said there were no injuries as a result of the pursuit.

As an oncologist, one of the most difficult conversations I can have with a patient is about how long they have to live after they have been diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer.

Surprisingly, physicians and other health care providers have little objective information on which to base their estimates when they try to answer the question. The result, according to reports, is that patients may not learn the truth about their illness, and they may be given an overly optimistic outlook by well-meaning physicians and nurses.

Studies have carefully reviewed the medical literature for articles that dealt with predicting survival in terminally ill cancer patients. They found there was little consistency by physicians and health care providers as to their abilities to predict survival. They researchers did note that short-term estimates were better than long-term views. And with the advent of hundreds of new treatments over the past 10 years, this is becoming much more difficult.

In an effort to become more scientific about predictions, some studies have examined a variety of observations and tests which, taken together, might provide patients and their families with more accurate information. These include a measure of “performance status,” where the medical professional rates the patient on an 11-point scale with a full range from normal functioning to death.

Several studies revealed that the performance status was a more accurate indicator of survival than that estimated by a clinician or by laboratory or radiographic testing.. Other studies looked at symptom status, and the most sophisticated estimates were based on a combination of a number of observations, including blood tests. However, most doctors do not want to ask for blood tests on patients who have exhausted all treatment options and are near the end of life.

Perhaps the most difficult conversation a patient can have with a physician is about how long they have to live after they have been diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer. Because cancer patients represent such a diverse group of people, it is very difficult to make accurate individual prediction regarding length of life once the diagnosis is made.

As a result, patients and their families may not make wise treatment decisions, such as avoiding clinical trials if the estimate of life expectancy is short when in reality it really is longer, or inappropriately move forward with aggressive therapy if the doctor is overly optimistic about survival when such is not the case.

More research is required in this area, and one would believe that with this research the medical professional may be better able to answer the difficult question: “How long do I have to live?” But again, with new treatment options becoming available on a regular basis, this answer may still be a mystery to many.

Dr. C. Joseph Bennett is a board- certified radiation oncologist. Contact him at 522 N. Lecanto Highway, Lecanto, FL 34461, or email cjbennett@rboi.com.

Part of the mission of the Salvation Army is to feed hungry people.

For years, twice a week volunteers would load up hot meals into the organization’s mobile canteen, go out to set locations and serve food to anyone who showed up who needed or wanted a meal.

“Even through the pandemic we were out feeding people,” said Salvation Army Major Hank Harwell.

But then the mobile canteen unit had mechanical problems, and in December 2021 they put the meal outreach program on pause so they could devote their time and resources to their Christmas-related programs for the community, Harwell said.

“Our plan was to start up again in January, but the people who were going to do the cooking moved away,” he said.

He said they have plenty of food to make the meals, they have volunteers to do the prep work in the kitchen and volunteers to load the meals onto the canteen twice a week and volunteers to serve the meals.

But they don’t have a person who knows how to cook for 300-plus people and who is willing to volunteer three or four hours in the Salvation Army kitchen in Lecanto on Mondays.

And without a lead person, they’re at a standstill.

“Actually, we’d like several people so it’s not all on one person,” Harwell said. “I think that’s what happened to us in the past, people get burned out. Even once a week gets to be a lot.”

Harwell said he thinks a retired school cafeteria cook would be ideal.

“We’ve had great volunteers in the past, and we’ve appreciated them and loved them,” Harwell said. “We don’t want to have all our eggs in one basket; that’s why we’re hoping several people will see this story in the paper and give us a call.”

As they’ve done in the past, on Mondays the kitchen crew comes in for about three or four hours to do the cooking.

The building is open from 8:30 or 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., so the kitchen crew can do their cooking anytime within those hours, Harwell said.

After everything comes out of the oven it’s put into the refrigerator until serving days, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

On those days, a Salvation Army staff person puts the pans of food that need to be reheated into the ovens and then around 3:30 p.m. everything is loaded into the canteen.

On Tuesdays, the canteen goes to Daystar in Crystal River, and on Wednesday to the Lions Club in Homosassa.

They try to be on location and ready to serve at 5 p.m.

“We feed not only homeless people, but families who are just trying to make their budgets work and seniors living on a fixed income,” Harwell said.

No questions asked, other than “How many meals do you need today?” No registration or advanced sign up.

They serve until they run out of food or everyone is fed.

Harwell said, when they were still doing this, they served about 150 meals at each location.

“It’s a great program, but it’s frustrating for us because we know how much people appreciated it, and we’ve had people asking about it,” he said.

He said they’re even getting a brand-new, custom-built canteen, thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Citrus County Hospital Board.

For those who are interested in this volunteer position, or any other volunteer opportunity, call the Salvation Army at 352-513-4960 or 352-461-9580. Email: hank.harwell@uss. salvationarmy.org.

The Salvation Army is at 712 S. School Ave, Lecanto.

Time is flying by for local high school sports. It feels like spring football practices had just started up again and now teams are gearing up for the real games taking place in the coming weeks. And four of Hernando County’s schools will be participating in a spring game/jamboree. Let’s take a closer look at each game mash-up and see how the teams are looking heading into the season.

May 19th Nature Coast at Lecanto: The Sharks are one of the county’s top returning teams in terms of talent and the return of running back Christian Cromer makes a big difference. The big-back, who has an offer from the Army, rushed for 1,955 yards last season and is now looking to pick up where he left off. Nature Coast Head Coach Cory Johns is also looking to start new quarterback Jackson Hoyt in the game, who has already committed to Florida for baseball and is only a freshman. Lecanto lost some talent from last season, so this game could be lopsided. The Sharks finished 8-4 last season, losing 40-14 to Clearwater in the playoffs.

Springstead at Palm Harbor University jamboree: The Eagles had a solid bounce-back year in 2021, going 6-4 and they did the majority of that without their starting quarterback Ayden Ferguson. Ferguson is now back to being the quarterback for Springstead for his upcoming senior campaign and looks to have a breakout season. The team loses key running backs Owen Andress and Cross Licht due to graduation but will have back Derrick Chiarella in the backfield. The Eagles will be facing off against Palm Harbor University and Clearwater Central Catholic, who was a playoff team last season.

May 20th Lakeland Tenoroc at Central: Though the Bears went winless last season, Central has had a good off-season so far and are heading in the right direction under Head Coach Jim Pusateri. The team returns starting signal-caller Evan Spears, who threw for 890 yards and five touchdowns last fall. Now Central will be going up against a talented Lakeland Tenoroc team that went 5-4 in 2021. The Titans lose starting running back Desean Williams to graduation and will be breaking in a new starter this spring.

Inverness Citrus, Hudson Fivay at Hernando jamboree: New Hernando Head Coach John Scargle will start his tenure in Brooksville at home against Citrus and Fivay. The Leopards have to revamp their entire offense from a year ago, as Hernando loses running backs Jordan Williams, Brian Lewis, and quarterback Blake Smith. Now Scargle and staff will have to replace three starters on offense along with installing a new offense, defense. They will face two teams that went a combined 5-15 in 2021.

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andy@hernandosun.com and follow him on Twitter @avillamarzo.