CANCER TREATMENT CENTERS OF AMERICA AT SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER Story by: Diane
Atlanta, Georgia
Alter
DR. PATRICIA RICH: CANCER CRUSADER
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“I BELIEVE THAT PREVENTION IS EASIER THAN FINDING A CURE,” - DR. PATRICIA RICH
here are heroes and there are icons. And then there
are those ordinary folks who embody what it means to be a good and decent person. The kind of person you look up to and want to emulate. For Dr. Patricia Rich, M.D., a medical oncologist with Cancer Treatment Centers of America® at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Newnan, Ga., that person was her father. During her childhood years spent in Argentina, Dr. Rich watched in awe and admiration as her father fervently served the country’s health campaign and its mission to give children vaccines. By the time she turned 15, Dr. Rich was part of the campaign. Her first brush with medicine was placing the polio vaccine on sugar cubes for children. That was when she found her calling and knew she was going to be a doctor. But very early on, she knew she was not going to be just any doctor. As a medical student, Dr. Rich was assigned to follow a cancer patient. The two became close and the patient confided that no one touched her because of her cancer, as if she were contagious. From that moment on, Dr. Rich has greeted every patient with a hug and pays attention to the whole person, not just the illness. Still, she dedicates a great deal of her time to research and clinical trials, increasingly encouraged by the strides made in cancer treatments, including new drugs and therapies. Advances in research allow doctors to personalize cancer treatment according to the type and severity of the illness. “As we individualize treatment, we hope to see marked increases in positive response rate,” Dr. Rich shared. Education is another key tool in combating cancer, and Dr. Rich is dedicated to providing as much knowledge as she can to the Latino community. Roughly 126,000 cancer patients are diagnosed each year and some 40,000 of those are Latino. As a medical oncologist, Dr. Rich treats patients battling a variety of cancers, from breast to prostate to CATMAX PHOTOGRAPHY
(L TO R) ANNE MEISNER, CTCA AT SOUTHEASTERN CEO; ENRIQUE LUTGEN, DR. RICH’S FATHER; NEDA LUTGEN, DR. RICH’S MOTHER; DR. PATRICIA RICH; MARK RICH, DR. RICH’S HUSBAND.
MATT BISH PHOTOGRAPHY
brain and bone. But of all the cancer types she sees, none are as feared as lung cancer. Indeed, lung cancer is the most common and fatal cancer that affects Hispanics. Some 10,000 Hispanic people are diagnosed annually with the disease. Yet lung cancer is also the most preventable cancer. That’s why educating people on how to prevent, recognize and treat the disease is critically important. Cigarette smoking accounts for about 80% of lung cancer diagnoses. Lung cancer is more prevalent among Hispanic men, but rates among women are close behind because more women are smoking, according to Dr. Rich. More women are dying from lung cancer than from breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Lung cancer rates in the Hispanic community are so high because the disease is typically diagnosed late, after it has progressed to an advanced, often incurable stage. “I believe that prevention is easier than finding a cure,” Dr. Rich said. Awareness drives a cure, she continued, and if caught early, most patients will survive. However, if diagnosed at stage IV, the survival rate drops to just 20%. Coughing, unexplained weight loss, coughing up blood, chest pain, and pain between the shoulder blades are some signs to be conscious of, especially if they get worse and you are a former smoker. Dr. Rich stresses that the most important thing to remember about lung cancer is that it is largely preventable. She urges people to pay close attention to potential symptoms, and to quickly seek medical care if lung cancer is suspected.
For more information visit www.cancercenter.com