Patti Morgenstern
Cancer Survivor

Patti Morgenstern has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years. She admits it was more like four packs on some days.
And she doesn’t like going to the doctor. When she developed bronchitis or pneumonia every year, a trip to urgent care got her back on her feet. 

But at age 57, Patti decided it was time to be more proactive about her health. She was getting older and was the primary caretaker for her intellectually disabled younger brother. “For him, I needed to take better care of myself. And I figured it would be easier if I had a primary care doctor.” 

That’s when the Chester County resident made an appointment to see Thomas “Bo” Bryan, MD, at Lexington Family Practice White Knoll, a Lexington Medical Center physician practice. “Because of my smoking, age and deferred maintenance, Dr. Bryan wanted me to get a lung cancer screening,” she said. Lexington Medical Center’s lung cancer screening program is for people with a long history of smoking. 

“The lung cancer screening is our opportunity to find these cancers early — long before they cause symptoms — and give us hope for curative treatment, often without chemotherapy and radiation,” Dr. Bryan said. “Like any cancer, the earlier the detection, the better the outcome.”

After a lot of persuasion from Dr. Bryan, Patti reluctantly agreed — but only because she thought she could prove to the doctor she didn’t have lung cancer. According to Patti, people had been trying to convince her for years to stop smoking. “But I’m set in my ways,” she said. Unfortunately, Patti’s lung cancer screening showed something she didn’t expect. 

“People who know me said, ‘Something will happen and you’re going to quit.’ I guess that’s what happened.” The screening detected a mass on her lung. Dr. Bryan referred Patti to Carolina Pulmonary at Lexington Medical Center. Pulmonologist W. Shawn Ghent, MD, FCCP, said he wanted to have the mass removed and biopsied to see if it was cancer.

In January 2021, doctors at Lexington Medical Center removed the mass and some surrounding lymph nodes for testing. She learned that the tumor was malignant, but the lymph nodes did not show signs of cancer. “Thankfully, the lesion was small, the screening process worked perfectly, and Patti should not need further treatment for this cancer,” Dr. Ghent said. She had stage 1 lung cancer — the stage at which it’s most treatable. 

“I told the doctor, ‘Man, you knew what you were talking about.’ He told me that some people put off lung cancer screenings until they’re at the point when all they can do is send them to hospice. In my case, it could have gone that way very quickly.” But she’s been told if she starts smoking again, the tumor can come back.

Today, Patti credits Dr. Bryan and his encouragement to have a lung cancer screening with saving her life.
And when she ran out of cigarettes in January, she vowed to never buy any more for herself. To date, she hasn’t.