Ask Barbara Glover, retired owner and director of Miss Barbara’s School of Dance in Buffalo, why she decided to make an appointment for a lung cancer screening and she’ll tell you it was divine intervention.
She was in her home watching TV when she heard a commercial about free lung cancer screening. Barbara picked up her phone, called the number to get information and left a message for EDDY, or Early Detection Driven to You, the mobile low-dose CT lung screening van offered by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“The next day I got a call from Roswell Park,” she says. She provided some basic information, including that she had smoked cigarettes for a number of years but had previously quit, and learned that she qualified for screening. Barbara made an appointment for the next day, when EDDY was parked behind the fire station near Buffalo City Hall. “I entered the van, sat right down and they took some information, then they told me to go to the other side of the van to get a CAT scan and that was that,” she recalls.
Within a few days, Barbara received another call from Roswell Park to let her know that her CT scan results showed cause for concern. Her scan showed that a lung nodule, which previously appeared on a CT scan taken at another hospital a few years earlier when she had had trouble breathing, had grown. Barbara didn’t know about the nodule at that time, but now that it was measuring about 2 centimeters, it was recommended that she get a PET scan for additional information.
“I went for the PET scan and the next day I got a call from Roswell Park. They said they had some good news and some bad news,” Barbara says. “The bad news was that the nodule was suspicious for lung cancer. The good news was, it had not spread.”
On yearly follow-ups now, thanks to EDDY
A needle biopsy confirmed the presence of cancer and Barbara was given two treatment options — surgery or radiation — with a recommendation for surgery to remove the lobe of her lung where the nodule was located. Barbara’s family, including her daughter, brother and sister-in-law, and a church member came with her to her first appointment with Elisabeth Dexter, MD, FACS, a thoracic surgeon at Roswell Park.
“Once she found out it was cancer and it was early stage, she was pretty gung-ho about getting it out versus having radiation,” Dr. Dexter says.
Surgery was scheduled for April 11, 2023, and the routine procedure went well, removing the lower lobe of her right lung to take out the 2-centimeter nodule. There were no indications that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and because she had no complications, three days after the surgery, Barbara went home.
“She came in every six months for scans for the first two years, and now she’ll be on yearly follow-ups because she’s doing well,” Dr. Dexter says.
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Early detection makes a difference
Barbara’s cancer was found after making a call to set up an appointment with EDDY for her low-dose CT scan, something Dr. Dexter hopes more people will do going forward.
“A lot of the nodules we’re starting to see with the screening, they’re even smaller, measuring 4 or 5 millimeters,” Dr. Dexter explains. “Hers may have been there for a while. When she had her scans a few years before, it might have been noticed, but there was no previous scan for comparison. When she came in for her screening with EDDY, they were able to identify that it was different when compared to her medical records.”
Today, Barbara has adjusted to her new life as a cancer survivor. She reflects on the day she heard the EDDY commercial and took action with a kind of wonder.
“That was the last thing I would’ve ever even thought about,” she says. “I didn’t even know about lung cancer screenings before. Even my daughter asked me if I had any symptoms, but no, there were no symptoms.”
Barbara retired after 57 years at the helm of Miss Barbara’s School of Dance, which she founded and was often celebrated as the longest-running African American-owned and operated dance school in the history of Buffalo, around the same time as her lung cancer surgery. But that doesn’t mean she’s slowed down: “I’m the president of my block club, I’m president of my church, I’m interim chair of the church property board. I am a volunteer at Shea’s. I’m very busy!” she says.
Barbara also works with Roswell Park to organize health fairs at her church and has become an even stronger advocate for lung screening for others, including her brother. “I’ve always been an advocate for people getting their annual checkups and mammograms. Lungs were never part of the conversation before because I didn’t know screening existed.”
Barbara is grateful to Dr. Dexter, the EDDY team and Roswell Park for her new lease on life. “My experience with Roswell from beginning to end was wonderful. I have no complaints. They took very good care of me.”
Editor’s Note: Cancer patient outcomes and experiences may vary, even for those with the same type of cancer. An individual patient’s story should not be used as a prediction of how another patient will respond to treatment. Roswell Park is transparent about the survival rates of our patients as compared to national standards, and provides this information, when available, within the cancer type sections of this website.
