Laura Berman

Fighting stigma of lung cancer

Two who lost loved ones work for research dollars, raise profile.

Pink ribbon envy helps inspire Sammi Hawkins. It's a force that also propels cancer researcher Dr. Deborah Morosini the sister of the actress Dana Reeve.

"Every October, when my oatmeal turns pink, I get angry," says Hawkins, who joined the American Lung Association of Michigan staff after her husband, Jim Hawkins, died two years ago. She is half-joking, half-furious.

The incredible success of breast cancer advocacy in generating research dollars and generosity of spirit has eluded lung cancer researchers, patients and survivors.

Pink toasters and toothpaste, oatmeal and spatulas help raise money for breast cancer research. "The government will spend $23,000 for every breast cancer death this year compared to $1,800 for every lung cancer death," says Hawkins.

Despite lung cancer's mind-numbing death toll -- 175,000 people will die from the disease next year -- it's a hushed-up disease. Tarred by an association with cigarette smoke, even its victims often hide their diagnoses.

"It's common for people to say they have brain cancer rather than lung cancer," says Hawkins, just to avoid the smoking stigma.

"People don't want to be associated with it," says Morosini, who earned an M.D. as a divorced mother of two boys, going to school part time. Now passionate about raising awareness and research dollars, she says, "I find myself chasing people into parking lots."

Hawkins discovered the disease's PR problems after her husband, an engineer and expert on thermostatic controls, was diagnosed with the disease.

"And yes, he smoked. But he was only 39 years old. "

She organized Friday's Breathe 2007 Lung Cancer Medical and Advocacy conference at the Karmanos Cancer Center, an event that brought together nationally renowned researchers, lung cancer patients, survivors and advocates.

But Dana Reeve, the wife and then widow of actor Christopher Reeve, did not smoke. Now her older sister, a Massachusetts pathologist, is a leading advocate for more awareness about a disease that some studies show is taking a heightened toll on women who don't smoke.

"Dana didn't smoke, she didn't eat bacon, she ate lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and she died from this disease," Morosini told me in a Thursday interview at the Detroit cancer institute.

Reeve's only real risk factors for lung cancer were parents who used to smoke when she was young.

Since her sister's diagnosis, "my own attitude has completely changed," says Morosini, the keynote speaker at the Breathe conference.

So has mine, since a friend who never smoked died earlier this year from lung cancer.

Says Morosini: "Most lung cancer is caused by smoking. But when someone gets heart disease, you don't say: 'Did you eat red meat?'... It's a disease. Let's take the emotion, and the stigma, out of it."

You can reach Laura Berman at (248) 647-7221 or lberman@detnews.com.