Back on Top: Gary Evans Climbing Mountains After Lung Cancer
| The view from the 1,011-foot summit of Pinnacle Mountain is spectacular, and Gary Evans does his best to get there as often as he can. But after a lung cancer diagnosis in January 2023, Evans wasn’t sure he would get to the top of his favorite mountain ever again.
“I felt good about my health. I climbed Pinnacle just about every day, did yoga and my own yard work,” said Evans, who was 70 when he was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer.
The view from atop Pinnacle Mountain
Faithfully keeping up with his doctor’s appointments, Evans went in for a routine check-up with his primary care physician. When the subject of his 45-year smoking history came up, his doctor referred him to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) for a low-dose CT screening.
Though he quit smoking in 2011, Evans had a high risk of getting lung cancer. In March 2021, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force expanded screening guidelines to include a larger age range and more current and former smokers. The guidelines recommend low-dose CT screening for adults 50 to 80 years of age with a 20-pack year smoking history (one pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years) or current smokers who quit in the last 15 years.
Although skeptical because he felt healthy, Evans followed his doctor’s advice and went for a low-dose CT screening at UAMS. A low-dose CT scan is a special kind of X-ray that takes multiple pictures of the lungs. A computer then combines the images into a detailed picture of the lungs that physicians interpret for anomalies. Screening is covered by Medicare and most private insurers for patients who need the guidelines.
“They noticed a small spot on my lungs,” Evans said. “They scanned me twice and found that the spot was marginally larger in the second scan.”
A biopsy was inconclusive. Was it cancer or not?
Erring on the safe side, Evans was referred to Matthew Steliga, M.D., chief of thoracic surgery at UAMS and the Kent C. Westbrook, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology.
“He is so kind. I can’t say enough good things about him,” said Evans.
Steliga advised Evans to have the small, localized tumor in his lungs surgically removed to prevent it from growing and potentially spreading to other parts of the body. With Steliga’s expertise in minimally invasive lung surgery, Evans was expected to make a quick recovery and be back in action in no time.
“Patients like Gary with early-stage lung cancer are often good candidates for this type of surgery,” said Steliga, who noted that patients with early-stage lung cancers rarely have symptoms to alert them that there’s anything wrong.
“Most patients have less pain and need fewer pain medications after minimally invasive surgery. The incisions are smaller and less noticeable. They don’t lose as much blood, so they feel better faster, and there is much less risk of infection and complications.”
The surgery required only a small, two-inch incision on Evans’ side and a two-day stay in the hospital. A pathology evaluation of the tumor during the surgery confirmed that it was malignant. The cancer was removed completely along with some lymph nodes. Evans did not need follow-up chemotherapy, radiation or any other treatments.
Timing is everything in diagnosing and treating cancer. If Evans had not followed his doctor’s advice and put the lung screening off for a year or more, he may have been facing a later-stage cancer with fewer treatment options and lower survival odds.
Evans is proof that screening saves lives; however, less than 3% of eligible adults in the U.S. get screened for lung cancer.
Gary Evans is grateful to be able to climb Pinnacle Mountain again and take in this breathtaking visage.
“If you listen to the doctors and follow their advice — don’t ignore it or say you’ll do it tomorrow — you’ve got the best chance of having a good life; the best life you can live physically anyway,” Evans said.
By the end of the month after his surgery, Evans felt good enough to climb Pinnacle Mountain again.
“I had no problems at all. I felt like I had never even had surgery, to tell you the truth. From then on, I knew I was good.”
Scans of his lungs six months after his surgery showed no signs of cancer. He got a clean bill of health at his annual check-up in September.
Evans looks back on his days as a smoker as “living on borrowed time.”
“I always knew I needed to quit, and one day my girlfriend gave me an ultimatum. Her father died of cancer, and she didn’t want the same for me. I knew logically it was bad for me, and it was eating me up inside and I needed to stop while I still could. Someone I cared about said, ‘Hey, this is important enough that it’s a deal breaker for me.”
Evans, then 58, was able to quit smoking on his own and hasn’t smoked a cigarette or any kind of tobacco since then.
“I just had really good experiences with all the people I have met at UAMS. I am really pleased with the care I get there. That comes from everyone,” said Evans, now 71 and cancer-free.
Though survival rates for lung cancer have jumped 22% nationally, lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths in Arkansas.
Screening for lung cancer with annual low-dose CT scans among those at high risk can reduce the lung cancer death rate by up to 20% by detecting tumors at early stages when they are more likely to be curable.
Arkansas has one of the lowest lung cancer screening rates in the nation. “We are changing that one person at a time,” said Steliga.
To schedule a screening or learn more about UAMS’ clinic-based tobacco cessation programs, call (501) 944-5934.