From Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University’s blog.

Former NFL linebacker and Chicago Bear, Chris Draft, visited the Lurie Cancer Center to learn more about advances being made in lung cancer research and treatment.

Team Draft Visits Lurie Cancer Center

Team Draft, part of the Chris Draft Family Foundation, was created by Chris and his late wife, Keasha, during her year-long struggle with lung cancer. Since Keasha’s death last December, Chris has renewed his commitment to saving lives by changing the face of lung cancer; increasing awareness and crucially needed research funding by shattering the misconception that lung cancer is a “smoker’s disease.”

Chris was not surprised to learn from thoracic oncologist, Jyoti Patel, MD, that 30% of lung cancer patients treated at the Lurie Cancer Center are non-smokers. “Keasha never smoked. The association with smoking makes patients feel guilty, and makes it harder for patients and caregivers to grieve. We were blessed by the strength and love of our family and friends,” he adds. “Keasha and I didn’t want the stigma to keep other lung cancer patients from receiving support when they need it most.”

Chris toured the Lurie Cancer Center, Keasha’s iPad in hand, with Dr. Patel, thoracic surgeon, Malcolm DeCamp, MD, radiation oncologist, Minesh Mehta, MD, and Senior Practice Manager, Karen Giammicchio, MSN, APN, AOCNS. In addition, Chris visited the Lurie Cancer Center’s inpatient units in Northwestern’s Prentice Women’s Hospital with Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Barb Gobel, RN, MS, AOCN, and met with Raymond Bergan, MD, to learn about research related to chemoprevention of lung cancer.

At each stop along the way, he took off the cover to show a photo of Keasha, including her in the experience. “The purpose of Team Draft is not just to honor my wife,” he said. “It’s an extension of her passion and spirit—and of other courageous cancer patients, caregivers and healthcare providers dedicated to making a difference.”

Learn more about Chris’s outreach on behalf of Team Draft. Respond and Donate

Cancer care at Rush thrives on the close integration of patient care and innovative research designed to move quickly from the laboratory bench to the bedside. For patients at risk for lung cancer, low-dose computerized tomography (LDCT) offers the opportunity to screen for the presence of early stage tumors on the lungs. While this is a major advance in screening options, it presents significant challenges to physicians who face tough diagnosis and treatment decisions. LDCT scans are expensive, cannot distinguish benign from cancerous nodules, and, through excessive radiation exposure, may actually increase the cancer risk for patients requiring regular screening.

A simple and cost-effective blood test being developed in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Borgia and his colleagues at the Rush Thoracic-Oncology Research Group has the potential to address these challenges and serve as an effective complement to CT scanning. In even the earliest stages of lung cancer, tumors release specific molecules into the blood that differ from those shed by benign nodules. These molecules can range from circulating factors that help regulate tissue metabolism to components of an unsuccessful immune response to the tumor. Dr. Borgia’s team has devised a way to use these molecules to identify a fingerprint that gives important information about each patient’s condition to the physician, ideally allowing for a more timely and accurate diagnosis.

For patients, the benefits are clear. Those with a family history of lung cancer or who are deemed high risk can be evaluated regularly with this blood test without prolonged exposure to radiation. Patients whose LDCT scans show indeterminate nodules can follow up with the blood test to determine if cancer is present. This allows patients who are negative for cancer to avoid invasive biopsies or unnecessary surgeries, and it is far less risky and worrisome than taking a “wait and see” approach as to whether the nodule grows.

Ongoing research also holds the promise of developing a second convenient, low-cost test that offers physicians additional information that will guide treatment and improve patient outcomes. This includes predicting whether the cancer is metastatic, where it is likely to spread, and what type of chemotherapy may benefit a particular patient. Approximately 25% of patients with a single lung tumor die of disease recurrence within five years of surgery, making this a particularly critical area for research. Dr. Borgia is devoting substantial resources to addressing this significant limitation to current diagnostics. If successful, this test will help the surgeons identify which patients may benefit from more aggressive postoperative care as a means to improve survival.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, but Dr. Borgia’s program to develop effective and inexpensive screening tests is well positioned to enable physicians to catch the disease early, treat it most effectively, and most importantly, save lives. With clinical trials on the horizon, this new tool may be just a few years away from reducing lung cancer mortality. Respond and Donate

Dr. Ferguson specializes in the surgical management of diseases of the lungs and esophagus. He is experienced in all techniques of lung and esophageal resection, and is skilled in surgical methods to relieve airway obstruction and malignant pleural effusions. He has served on the boards and committees of numerous national societies and institutions including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Ferguson is the author of more than 80 chapters in medical textbooks. He has edited or written books on esophageal reconstructive surgery, failed anti-reflux therapy, and decision-making in thoracic surgery. He recently authored an atlas of general thoracic surgery. Dr. Ferguson has also written more than 170 papers in medical journals, and serves as an editor or associate editor for two cardiothoracic surgery journals.

His research interests include risk analysis and long-term outcomes after lung resection and esophageal resection. Respond and Donate

“Lung cancer came into my house, and it took my wife. Too many families are affected by this horrible disease.  It’s time to respond,” said CDFF founder, Chris Draft, of his Team Draft initiative.  “That’s why Keasha and I launched Team Draft.  She wanted to be an inspiration to those battling the disease and we wanted to raise awareness so that other families wouldn’t have to go through what we went through. Team Draft is committed to changing the face of lung cancer, but it takes a team to tackle cancer.”

Team Draft is back on the move, and visiting Chicago as part of a Midwest leg  of a nationwide public awareness campaign to change the face of lung cancer.  The visit to Chicago will include stops at three of the nations’s top cancer research and treatment facilities, Rush University Medical Center and Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, and also the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Team Draft will share amazing stories from Chicagoans who are Changing the Face of Lung Cancer, and video of phenomenal doctors and researchers at these facilities who are Tackling Lung Cancer, one breath at a time. Respond and Donate

ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) – Jackie Archer and former NFL player Chris Draft stood next to Gov. Nathan Deal as he signed into law a bill that calls for the creation of a Lung Cancer Awareness license plate.

“I honestly didn’t think that I would be alive to see this happen, but I am,” Archer said as she fought back tears. Archer is a lung cancer survivor. Doctors discovered it in 2005 after she was involved in a car accident.

“My accident saved my life,” said Archer. To this day doctors do not know how Archer got lung cancer because she never smoked and neither did her parents. “The whole stigma that lung cancer is a smokers disease, we are changing that stigma,” said Archer.

Draft, who also played for the Atlanta Falcons, is also helping to change that stigma. His wife lost her battled to lung cancer exactly one month after their wedding. Keasha Rutledge Draft was only 38. She was another non-smoker diagnosed with the deadly disease. Draft held a picture of Keasha while the governor signed the lung cancer license plate into law.

“This plate doesn’t just say lung cancer matters, but it really allows somebody to feel like they matter and fighting against it with family and friends who are right there with them,” said Draft. Draft was there for his wife and although she’s gone, he is still fighting to bring awareness. He said that’s why it was important for him to be there when Georgia became the first state in the country to have a lung cancer license plate. “By having the plate and increasing the awareness people will understand how important it is and do something about it,” said Draft. Respond and Donate

Chris Draft speaks often of how his wife, Lakeasha Rutledge Draft, embodied a zest for life and had a spirit that just wouldn’t quit, even in the face of cancer.  She knew how important it was to keep a positive outlook and to concentrate not on dying, but instead on what life has to offer each and every day.  Cancer Wellness at Piedmont Cancer Center provides many programs to keep cancer patients focused and moving forward with a healthy body and a motivated mind, from creative cooking classes to yoga and Tai Chi.  All are designed to enkindle a healthy attitude towards treatment, recovery, and life, and all are available free of charge to any Georgia resident who needs that extra encouragement to stay motivated during treatment.

Carolyn Helmer, manager of Cancer Wellness, says that the program strives to nurture the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of patients.  The offerings are designed to reduce stress, to allow patients to “exhale” and “find hope”, and to provide opportunities to socialize with other cancer patients.   The hope is to enable participants to recover that joie de vivre that Keasha was able to demonstrate and express throughout her inspiring and courageous battle with lung cancer. Respond and Donate

Dr. Kvale is board certified in Family Practice and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Her clinical interests include the supportive care of cancer patients, survivorship, and the care of palliative patients in intensive settings. She is the Director of the Supportive Care and Survivorship outpatient clinic at UAB. Her research interests include Health Services Research focused on cancer survivor ship, symptom assessment and management, and implementation research. Her research is currently supported by the American Cancer Society, the NIH, and the Veterans Administration. Respond and Donate

Good Day Alabama - Fox 6

Veteran NFL Linebacker , NFL ambassador and lung health advocate Chris Draft  is in town today as part of his nationwide tour of leading lung cancer research and treatment centers. Chris’s 38 year old wife, Keasha Rutledge Draft died of lung cancer. Through the Chris Draft Family Foundation, he is carrying on their work of raising lung cancer awareness via the “Team Draft” Initiative – an alliance with the NFL Players Association School of Legends.

Chris will meet with researchers at UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center  – and will be meeting with  lung cancer research and treatment faculty to get a close up look at the many promising UAB programs that are fighting the disease. Team Draft is dedicated to raising awareness, accelerating research for a cure, and leading improvements in the patient treatment experience by improving cancer treatment facilities and creating a better environment in which those battling the disease can fight. Chris is a veteran NFL linebacker; he played in the league for 13 years and maintains strong ties with the NFL teams he played for: Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins, San Francisco Forty Niners, Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams and the Buffalo Bills. Chris played college football for Stanford University, earning a degree in Economics during his college career.

Click here to watch the video at Fox 6′s Good Day Alabama page.

Dr. Robert James Cerfolio has been in the medical profession for more than 20 years. He is a board certified General Thoracic Surgeon. Dr. Cerfolio is known by his colleagues as one of the busiest and best thoracic surgeons in the world. In 1999 alone he performed more than 800 operations for disorders of the esophagus, lungs, mediastinum, and trachea. He has held this record yearly ever since. In addition to his position as Thoracic Surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Cerfolio is also Chief and Director of Thoracic Surgery for Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital and on the Medical Leadership Committee. Respond and Donate

Dr. Cerfolio’s clinical interests are lung cancer, esophageal surgery, tracheal surgery, repair of bronchopleural fistula, Video Assisted Thoroscopy (VAT), chest wall resection and reconstruction, and meidastinal masses. Dr. Cerfolio is a collaborator in research to develop gene therapies for esophageal cancer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) – On April 5th, 2012 former NFL linebacker Chris Draft toured UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is currently under construction.

Seeing one of the nation’s leading cancer research and treatment centers in transition is just what someone like Draft would want to see.

Chris and his wife Lakeasha Rutledge Draft created “Team Draft” less than one year ago, during Keasha’s battle with lung cancer. The organization was started in hopes that her fight to live would give hope atnd comfort others around the world. They came up with the idea during their wedding, in which she was in a wheelchair and had to use oxygen.

Keasha passed away on December 27th, 2011, just one month after the couple married. She was 38 and a non-smoker.

With an ipad in hand, Chris Draft walked the halls of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center with its director Edward Partridge, removing the pink cover from the ipad each time the group stopped to take a photo reveiling a picture of his vibrant wife.

With his wife still by his side, Draft continues to fight. He has been touring cancer centers around the world to help encourage patients, doctors and researchers to continue the fight.

Respond and DONATE at TeamDraft.org.