Lung Cancer

Orest Kindrachuk, a member of the Flyers from 1972 to '78, stood in a hallway at the First Union Center yesterday, his voice choked with emotion, tears trickling down his left cheek. He was talking about Jenny Barber, the 48-year-old wife of Flyers coach Bill Barber. Jenny Barber died yesterday of lung cancer. "Billy and I were roommates at Richmond," said Kindrachuk, who played with Barber on the Flyers' Stanley Cup championship teams in 1973-74 and 1974-75. "That was the first time I met her. It was one of those old, high school-type of romances.

A study by the American Cancer Society shows more Pennsylvanians are dying from lung cancer by a wider margin than any other form of cancer and that it is among the most common forms of cancer reported among the living. Lung cancer remains the nation's No. 1 cancer killer and will account for an estimated 160,500 deaths this year, according to Cancer Facts & Figures - 1997, the ACS's latest statistical report. In Pennsylvania, an estimated 77,400 cancer cases will be diagnosed in 1997, and of those, 9,500 will be lung cancer, the ACS predicted.

New Jersey residents are more likely to develop cancer from radon gas than from contaminated drinking water, toxic-waste sites or pesticide-tainted food, according to a state report released yesterday. The study by the Department of Environmental Protection said that an average of 320 lung cancer cases each year in New Jersey could be caused by radon, an odorless gas that lurks in the basements of many houses. "The most serious environmental threat to New Jersey residents is exposure to naturally occurring radon gas in our homes," said DEP Commissioner Christopher J. Daggett, when he released the report at a news conference.

HOW MUCH of a music freak was Stu Green? As a teenager in the 1960s, he'd "stay up all night listening to the Doug Henderson Rocketship Show on the radio," younger brother Rick Green recalled Monday. "And he told me he literally walked from his house in Teaneck, N.J., to the Apollo Theater in Harlem [crossing the George Washington Bridge] so he could take in big R&B shows," said Stu Green's daughter, Georgia. "James Brown, Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson were his special favorites," she added.

Donna Summer's family says the singer died of lung cancer even though she wasn't a smoker. TMZ says the diva believed she contracted the disease by breathing in toxic air after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. Summer, who died Thursday at 63 in Naples, Fla., lived near ground zero. Summer's family rep, Brian Edwards, also said on Friday that the singer's funeral would be private and declined to disclose a time or place for the event. J-Lo: I'm undecided Jennifer Lopez denies she's already quit American Idol.

Frank McAlpin died the way he lived, his dignity overwhelming his despair, always caring and never complaining, passionate and positive until his last breath. On May 18, Mr. McAlpin, 55, died from lung cancer at Bryn Mawr Hospital. After an initial outpouring of grief, the Episcopal Academy cross-country team - which he coached for 16 years through 2001 - is doing its best to achieve without him, and honor him at the same time. "From the first day I met with them last summer, I said we were dedicating the season to Mr. McAlpin," said Jim Farrell, Episcopal's associate athletic director and new cross-country coach.

A Burlington Township rehabilitation center for senior citizens is being sued by two women who claim negligence by the staff led to the premature death of their 68-year-old mother. Bolstering the lawsuit is a September 1996 Department of Health investigation that cited the Marcella Nursing and Rehabilitation Center for providing inadequate care for Marietta Shoemaker, a retired Mount Laurel cashier who suffered advanced lung cancer. Both the lawsuit, filed Monday in Camden County Superior Court, and the DOH report say that Shoemaker, the mother of four, suffered needlessly from bedsores and skin problems that were left untreated for the 2 1/2 weeks she stayed at Marcella.

Delaware County residents face an above-average chance of developing breast cancer, lung cancer, venereal disease and AIDS. This finding is part of an unusual community health assessment released yesterday by Crozer-Keystone Health System. Overall, the study found that Delaware County residents enjoy excellent health that reflects their level of education and affluence. The study contrasted Delaware County with other counties in the state and 197 populous counties in the nation, then standardized Delaware County's scores and presented them as percentile ranks (the same way Scholastic Aptitude Test scores are compared nationally for college admissions.

The lung cancer support group meeting had been going on for some minutes when David and Joan Frieder walked nervously into the room. The news was grim. After years of almost continuous chemo, treatments that left David wretchedly ill but not cured, he could endure no more. "So I'm in hospice now," said the 66-year-old retired stockbroker from Bala Cynwyd, beginning to cry and waving at Joan to continue their story. Soon Joan was crying, too. "I felt sort of guilty coming here today," she said.

AstraZeneca P.L.C.'s new cancer drug Iressa was approved yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration to treat advanced-stage lung cancer patients who have exhausted traditional chemotherapy. The FDA approved Iressa, a once-a-day, 250-milligram tablet, to treat non-small-cell lung cancer that has progressed despite treatment with chemotherapy. The ruling is important not only for London-based AstraZeneca, with its U.S. headquarters and 4,000 employees based near Wilmington, but also for seriously ill patients who now have another option.