A Surrey resident is calling for more routine screenings for lung cancer after she was diagnosed at 40 years old.
Adrienne Peralta was an active and healthy woman at the peak of her career. She and her husband, Benjo, were planning their second honeymoon, a trip to New York, and they were also planning to try to have a baby.
A few months before her 40th birthday, Peralta visited her local emergency room for an unrelated medical issue. The doctors asked her to return the following week for an ultrasound.
At the followup visit, the doctor ordered an X-ray to rule out pneumonia after she had recently developed a cough.
"That's when they found some spots and some nodules, and he said, OK, there might just be an infection, so he said, we'll just refer you to a specialist," she said.
She had a biopsy in February, and a week later, they called to say it was lung cancer.
"I was really shocked," she said. "I stigmatize myself. ... I'm not a smoker."
"Why would I have cancer? I live a healthy life, I do yoga, I work out, I eat healthy."
The first question people would often ask her when she shared her cancer diagnosis was if she smoked. "I started researching so I could give them the right answer, that lung cancer is not just for smokers."
Dr. Stephen Lam, a respirologist at BC Cancer and medical director for the B.C. lung screening program, said he has seen an increase in the number of lung cancer patients who have never smoked before. BC Cancer notes about 33 per cent of lung cancer cases in the province are in people who have never smoked.
One reason for the increase is exposure to air pollution, Lam said.
"Foreign-born Canadians that lived in other countries before coming to Canada were probably exposed to a higher dose of air pollutants before they moved to Canada. So that's one source of exposure," Lam said. "But then, more recently, in the last few years, we also have forest fire smoke exposure."
People often do not show systems of lung cancer when the disease is in its early stages, which is why routine screening is essential, Lam said.
Peralta said she had no symptoms, and by the time she was diagnosed, it was stage 4.
BC Cancer currently only recommends screening for people who have smoked for 20 years or more (currently or in the past) and are 55 to 74 years old.
Lam added they are currently researching the proper criteria for screening people and are conducting a study for women 45 to 74 and men 50 to 74 years old who had an immediate family member with lung cancer.
Additional research by BC Cancer found that Asian women are "more susceptible to developing lung cancer brought on by air pollution." It is currently creating a risk prediction tool to calculate a person's lifetime exposure to a particle (PM2.5) found in air pollution.
Peralta's message to the public is, "You don't choose to have cancer; it happens to anyone, regardless of lifestyle, and for those who have who receive a cancer diagnosis, don't be afraid, and don't blame yourself," Peralta said.
February will mark six years since her diagnosis. She is currently enrolled in a clinical trial to treat her cancer, which has mutated.
