Peter Jennings diagnosed with Lung Cancer

He used to smoke but quit a few years ago, apparently. And it definitely is sad, especially because when we reported it, we said that he has "the deadliest form of cancer". Is lung cancer really the deadliest? Good luck to him.

As a cancer survivor, I can tell you that lung cancer is one of the toughest ones to beat-I've lost a lot of friends to this disease.
According to the reports I heard, he use to smoke but quit, then later was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Stevie Ray Vaughn cleaned up his act and soon after dies in a helicopter crash.
Jerry Garcia of the Greatful Dead quit doing drugs and stopped drinking only to die a short time afterward.
Is it just me or does it seem that as soon as you stop doing something like smoking or drinking, you die.

I think it's just you.

It's really sad. I hope he gets better real soon!!!!

Hopefully it's just you because my husband quit last year. He was diagnosed with very early stage emphysema and quit cold-turkey that day (he's 42).

You hear about the famous people like that, but there's LOT of people who quit and are all the better for it

I was very sad to hear about Peter Jennings... I have always liked him very much. I will always remember election year 2000 when he stayed up all night reporting on the fiasco in Florida -- and how near 4am he was getting a little punchy. He's a straight shooter, often sentimental, and has a good sense of humor.

And I will never forget listening to him talk about 9/11 and getting choked up...

I really do wish him all the best and hope he can beat the odds and beat this!

Uncle Fester -

I really hope that it's just you!!!!!!!! I just quit smoking 2 months ago after 12 years of the horrible habbit! Now, I'm working on my husband. It's really hard to quit and stay strong when you have a smoker living with you.

I had no clue that Peter was 66 yrs old! Boy, he has aged well! I was also surprised to read that he quit 20 yrs ago. I wish Peter the best of luck. I really hope that he can over come this.

I too was surprised, especially that he quit so long ago. BUT you do NOT have to smoke to get lung cancer! My grandmother never smoked but lived with smokers all her life - her father and both her husbands. (Her first husband was much older and died of a heart attack. Her second died of emphysema) She developed lung cancer at 61, and died within 10 months, but only because she refused to seek treatment early enough (she showed symptoms almost a year before she was diagnosed but dismissed it as "a cold")

I agree it's tougher to stay quit when you have the temptation ever-present in the house - or at work. My father has struggled to quit many, many times over the years, but I just keep praying for him and hoping.

For some reason this saddened me this morning. I have a nasty suspicion that I'll be the one in my family to have lung cancer, dad smoked from the time I was born until just a few years ago, and hub has smoked ever since waaay before we married.....with my luck, they'll get off without anything and I'll be the one who gets it!

Oh cindy, I wouldn't say they'll get off without ANYthing - remember my grandmother's second hubby (the CIGAR smoker) died of emphysema - hardly anything to sneeze at. Besides, there are all other sorts of ill effects from smoking - cardiac disease, impaired lung function, the list goes on. KEEP AFTER your hubby to quit! The sooner he quits the sooner he starts getting healthier!!

I believe pancreatic cancer is the worst - no hope of recovery at all.

I also agree, you don't have to smoke to get lung cancer. Sometimes working in industrial environments with hazardous materials can cause lung cancer.

I'm sad about this. He needs our prayers.

You do NOT have to do anything wrong to get cancer! Cancer just comes! I have lost both parents - Dad to Prostate cancer, Mom to ovarian cancer (they think that is what kind killed her) My Uncle as a result of testicle cancer, My Mare to leukemia (they think) My Minnie kitty to Mammary cancer, My Schatzi Poodle to hemangiosarcoma cancer and now my Most Precious love EVER my Corkie to cancer in her lungs or chest.

I would give ANYTHING to stamp out cancer in ANYONE's life time! We are NOT doing enough and will not UNTIL it hits someone big or someone BIG's LOVED ONE! THEN maybe the government will wake up and smell the roses!

Uncle Fester, I can assure you it isn't just you. I have often thought the same thing!

My next door neigbor from when I lived in Illinois smoked for 50+ years. She developed lung cancer about seven years after she quit and died from it.

My next door neigbor here in Wisconsin died of some lung disease and he didn't even smoke, EVER!!


My grandmother is 84, an alcoholic and a former chain smoker who doesn't drink at all any more, is down to FIVE cigarettes a day; has mild CAPD and is not on ANY medication whatsovever. Except for two near death situations due to her drinking issues, she is pretty healthy. She doesn't have cirrhosis (sp?) of the liver and isn't on oxygen either. BTW, she is a very selfish, mean person.

My friend's father is 82. He STILL drinks beer and chain smokes every day and he is also medication free. He has mild emphysema (sp?) like my grandmother but is also not on oxygen.

My other friend's grandmother out lived TWO of her children. The first one died of a brain anurysm (what is it with all these weird words?) and the other (my friend's adoptive mother) died of cancer. The grandmother drank and smoked like my grandmother, was VERY nasty, and she lived to be in her mid 90's!!

I hope he has a full recovery. That's a nasty disease. They've come so far with treating it, but it's still hard to beat.
I wonder how he will be able to keep reporting while undergoing chemo...that exhausts most people.

My step-father's treatment ended over 3 months ago and he still isn't back to work...and he was in excellent health. Good thing is he's cancer-free now! Hopefully Peter Jennings will be, too!!

MyBabies, have you ever heard of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland?
It's on the campus of the National Institutes of Health and they're working every day (except federal holidays) to cure the many types of cancer that people can get.
They're smart people and they're working on the problem.
A fine example, the disease I had, lymphoblastic lymphoma (try saying that three times after a couple of shooters) was a death sentence a mere five or six years before I was diagnosed, today, they consider me to be cured.
Another example is Burketts lymphoma was an incedious and virtually always fatal and I lost several friends to it, but today, they are saving people from it.
These things take time.

Also, when you hear of "budget cuts", the budget for N.I.H. and other government agencies never decreases, the "cut" is only the amount of the budget increase they get from one year to the next.
That's the nasty little secret of baseline budgeting the government and the press don't want you to know so they can manipulate your feelings at election time.

When I realized that the hospital I was in was a research hospital, I was one day hit with the realization that I was really nothing more than a guniea pig in a laboratory, I was trading the hope for life in exchange for these guys to experiment on me!
I was only 15!

The Doctor I had, Doctor Howard Friedman, a great guy who was himself only 28 explained it to me this way:

"Jim, we're in a war against a disease that takes many different forms. In any war, you have soliders, generals, stratigists and tacticians, logistics and support personell.
In your case, you are a solider and I am your superior officer, if you do what I tell you to do, just like in a war, you will have the best chance for survival.
Are there going to be casualties? Yes there will, some of you will survive, others will not. That happens every day on the Capitol Beltway but the difference in, the deaths here help us better understand the cancer we're fighting.

Although you will almost certainly survive, there were others who went before you who laid down their lives to help us get this far-they died and by so doing, it saved you. And what we learn from you will help those who come behind you.
You're not a guniea pig, you're a solider in a war against an ellusive, mysterious and microscopic enemy that causes a person's own body to turn against them.
When you ask "why me?" it's as though you've been drafted into this war and you're serving humanity in a way that others never will, and never hope to."

That guy blew me away and it was then I learned (but sometimes forget) that suffering can be a blessing.
I wish Peter Jennings the best and welcome him to the battlefield-it'll be tough but if you make it, you have nothing to prove to anyone ever again.