Living with Lung Cancer - Nancy Prince

Web Extra! Hear Nancy Prince share more of her story of survival.

“About 30 years, a pack a day and sometimes more,” is Nancy Prince’s answer when asked how much she smoked. When asked how she quit, her answer is equally succinct: “Once you’re faced with death, it’s not hard to quit. You either quit or die, so I quit.”

Ms. Prince was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003. She went to her doctor for a low-grade temperature that persisted for more than a month, and an X ray revealed a tumor in her lung. Her doctor in Muscle Shoals referred her to Robert Cerfolio, M.D., at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center; Dr. Cerfolio ended up removing her entire right lung.

But the toughest part of Ms. Prince’s battle was just beginning. A few months after returning home from the hospital, she was diagnosed with bronchitis; when that condition worsened, she went back to the ER, and Dr. Cerfolio discovered she had developed a fistula, an abnormal opening in the lung wall. Following treatment for the fistula, Ms. Prince contracted both pneumonia and a fungus. All told, she spent 74 days in the hospital.

Yet despite facing long odds during her recovery, Ms. Prince has been problem-free for nearly four years now. “I haven’t had any relapses, and all of my scans have been good,” she reports. “I do get short-winded when I talk and walk a lot, I still do breathing treatments four times a day, and I use my oxygen when I use my exercise bike, but I’m doing well.”