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I was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2011, after a routine CT scan for a kidney cyst showed a ground glass opacity on my left lung. At first, I was somewhat concerned, but not too much—I could breathe well and I was a Zumba instructor for goodness sake. I would have had symptoms if it were cancer, wouldn’t I?

This was in the back of my mind and I wasn’t too concerned until my family doctor said, “You can’t just ignore this. I’m sending you to a pulmonologist.” That’s when things started to change. I liked my pulmonologist right away, but he looked at my scans and said that I needed a bronchoscopy. “What?” I said. “I have no symptoms. I’m ok, right?” He told me that the scans could mean nothing, but we needed to visually examine the mass with a bronchoscopy. READ MORE! Curtsey Of  the National Lung Cancer Partnership

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.

Team Draft and the National Lung Cancer Partnership are joining forces to bring much needed attention and critical resources to lung cancer.

“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, and we are proud to partner with the National Lung Cancer Partnership.”

Along with the Partnership, Team Draft is launching the East Coast leg of a nationwide public awareness campaign to change the face of lung cancer.  The two-week tour will include stops at some of the top cancer research and treatment facilities in the country, including several members of the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (the LCMC).

The Team Draft East Coast Tour will visit several cities to share the vision of Team Draft, including:

Charlotte, NC
Chapel Hill, NC
Washington, D.C.
Baltimore, MD
Philadelphia, PA
Mt. Laurel, NJ
New York, NY
Boston, MA
Washington. D.C.
Charleston, SC

Dr. Brock’s research has focused primarily on developing and clinically applying molecular biomarkers, namely DNA methylation, to facilitate the early detection, accurate prognosis and specific chemosensitivity of lung and esophageal cancers. Current projects include using DNA methylation as a more accurate molecular indicator of lymph micrometases in a large cohort of lung cancer patients and as a means of predicting sensitivity of esophageal cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy based on endoscopic biopsy samples. Dr. Brock actively collaborates with Drs. Stephen Baylin and James Herman in the Division of Tumor Biology in the Cancer Center. Recently, Dr. Brock has received NIH funding to investigate the rising incidence of lung cancer in HIV patients and has begun both a clinical study and a tumor-profiling project in this regard. Finally, the Brock laboratory has developed large relational databases of lung and esophageal patients with matching biological samples to validate biomarker discovery. Respond and Donate

Chris Draft leads Team Draft to meet with Pasi Janne, MD,PhD at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to support lung cancer research.

Associated with the world-renowned Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Pasi A. Janne, MD, PhD, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania – School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Upon earning his medical degree from this prestigious institution, Janne completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and earned a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Dana Farber. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and works in the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Respond and Donate

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the country.  It kills more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney, and melanoma  cancer combined.  While these facts may be disheartening, there is hope.  Team Draft took a trip to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to meet with Dr. Pierre Massion, Ingram Associate Professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, to learn how advancements in early detection and treatment are saving extending lives.

Thanks to the dedication and commitment of researchers and treating physicians like Dr. Massion and his colleagues at Vanderbilt-Ingram, we now have a mechanism to detect  lung cancer early, which dramatically increases the survival rate for lung cancer patients.  By submitting high-risk patients to regular spiral CT scans and CAT scans, doctors have decreased the mortality rate by 20%.

Vanderbilt-Ingram and the other members of the 14-hospital Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium (LCMC) are also revolutionizing the way lung cancer is treated by promoting molecular tumor mutation testing for lung cancer patients.  It is through such testing performed at Vanderbilt-Ingram that Keasha’s particular mutation was identified.  Molecular testing is one of the keys to developing effective personalized lung cancer treatments.  As a result of these efforts, the LCMC has already developed targeted drugs aimed at two of the mutations known to cause lung cancer.  These drugs are extending the lives of some patients by as much as 10 months.

Although there has been significant progress over the last decade, more funding is necessary to maintain the momentum.  Team Draft is dedicated to raising lung cancer awareness and increasing badly needed research funding by changing the face of lung cancer, but it takes a team to tackle cancer, and we need your help.  Respond and Donate

Dr. Pierre Massion, Vanderbilt University from TEAM DRAFT on Vimeo.