An Emotional Update
- Radio host Rush Limbaugh says his cancer has progressed, and going through treatment is like being on a roller coaster.
- Limbaugh is currently battling stage 4 lung cancer, which means the disease has spread to other parts of the body.
- Treatment options for stage 4 lung cancer could include targeted therapies and immunotherapy.
Latest Test Results
Limbaugh also announced that after going through a routine scan, doctors informed him that the cancer is still progressing. This understandably came as shocking news since Limbaugh says that prior scans showed the cancer had regressed and was being maintained. Since the disease has progressed, he will need to tweak his treatment plan yet again in order to make sure the cancer doesn’t progress any more. Limbaugh was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in February, and has gone through three separate waves of treatment after he wasn’t responding to prior therapies.
“You know, all in all, I feel very blessed to be here speaking with you today,” Limbaugh says. “Some days are harder than others. I do get fatigued now. I do get very, very tired now. I’m not gonna mislead you about that. But I am extremely grateful to be able to come here to the studio and to maintain as much normalcy as possible — and it’s still true.”
What is Stage 4 Lung Cancer?
Stage 4 lung cancer, also referred to advanced lung cancer, means the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. The goal of treatment is to eliminate any remnant of cancer in the body, and chemotherapy has long been the standard for advanced lung cancer patients. However, seeing as chemotherapy quickly targets and kills cells, including healthy cells, researchers have been discovering treatment options which will leave healthy cells in tact.
Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard breaks down an overview of stage 4 lung cancer
Treatment Options for Advanced Lung Cancer
While going through targeted therapies for his lung cancer, Limbaugh said the treatment process “nearly killed him.” However, for other patients they’ve shown to be very beneficial. Certain lung cancer patients who hold the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) — which, when overreactive, makes cancer cells grow and divide — targeted therapies slow cancer cells from dividing.
Related: What Late Stage Lung Cancer Patients Should Know About Immunotherapy During Coronavirus
Immunotherapy is also another option for lung cancer patients. Immunotherapy harnesses the power of your immune system to fight the cancer, but it all depends on the characteristics of a patient’s tumor and how it interacts with one’s immune system.
“We do know within several months of treatment whether [immunotherapy] going to work or not,” Dr. Ken Miller, Director of Outpatient Oncology at the University of Maryland, Greenebaum Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet. “When it does work, it may work really, really well. We see the white blood cells essentially going to the sites of tumor and killing cancer cells. So immunotherapy certainly has a role if we find that you have advanced lung cancer, definitely is having a growing role if we find you have stage 3 lung cancer.”
Dr. Ken Miller explains how immunotherapy works in advanced lung cancer
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