Fighting Lung Cancer An Interdisciplinary Team Improves Care Dreama Poore’s comforting manner invites you to confide your secrets to her. Recently, though, she was the one sharing secrets—by revealing her battle with lung cancer. “This is the first time I’ve really shared my story,” says Poore, 58, of Elliston, who has been cancer-free for a year and a half. When she was diagnosed, Poore’s tumor was relatively small. Because of its size, and the fact that she was otherwise healthy, Carilion Clinic cardiothoracic surgeon David Wyatt, M.D. was able to perform a lobectomy, removing a lobe of Poore’s right lung. Dr. Wyatt also removed Poore’s surrounding lymph nodes. Twenty years ago, this surgery would have required removing a rib and cutting through the muscles of the chest, greatly adding to recovery time. But Dr. Wyatt was able to perform the surgery after making only a small incision between Poore’s ribs. “Thoracic surgery today takes advantage of lesser invasive techniques,” Dr. Wyatt says. Poore also had the advantage of having her case reviewed by a thoracic oncology team that meets weekly at Carilion Clinic to evaluate patient cases from an interdisciplinary point of view. The team includes both Carilion and non-Carilion physicians who are sub-specialists in pulmonology, medical oncology, cardiothoracic surgery, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology, and interventional radiology. All the physicians focus on lung cancer and share the goal of giving patients the most advanced and effective treatments. “I couldn't believe it was me that this [cancer] was happening to,” Poore says of her first reaction to her diagnosis. “But as soon as I realized I had no control, I just let it
Dreama Poore says her life now has more meaning than ever. go and treated it like it was a bad cold.” Apparently that attitude contributed to her recovery. “Dreama was a good patient and did her part,” Dr. Wyatt says. “She was active and interested, and chose not to be a victim of her own problem.” Following her surgery, Poore underwent four months of chemother-
apy, and six months after her diagnosis, she was back at work fulltime at Roanoke College. This past May, she attended her 40th high school reunion in Wythe County. She doesn't have her next CT scan until December. She is loving life. “Life has more meaning than it ever has,” says Poore. “I have a zest now, more than ever.”
CarilionClinic.org | Fall 2011
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