"We don't know why never-smokers get lung cancer," Jorge Gomez, MD, medical director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and a volunteer spokesperson for the American Lung Association, tells. The most likely theories focus on other risk factors—including exposure to radon, second-hand smoke, and air pollution.Dr. Gomez is quick to point out that avoiding cigarettes is still the best way to protect yourself.
"Between the weight loss and the frequent coughing, my abs were looking good," she jokes, "but I knew something was wrong." Around the same time, she developed intense pain in her shoulder blade, but she assumed she had strained something during a workout. An orthopedist prescribed muscle relaxers."Finally my cough got so bad, I called a friend who worked at an imaging center and asked her to get me in for a chest X-ray.
Although Hollenbeck will never be cured, targeted therapy and brain surgery have kept her faring well most of the time. She still plays tennis, and she now serves as the president of, a support and advocacy group aimed at spreading the word and raising money to conduct research on people whose lung cancer is connected to an ALK-positive gene mutation.
Gilchrist, who had never smoked and whose genetic tests didn't reveal any abnormalities, is mystified as to why she got lung cancer. She even has an identical twin sister who's perfectly healthy.Her doctor prescribed aggressive chemotherapy plus radiation, and Gilchrist's journey hasn't been an easy one. She's landed back in the hospital several times with rhinovirus, a blood infection, and several bouts of pneumonia.