good sunday morning. i'm pat lawson muse. one of every 15 people in the country will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their life times. it doesn't matter whether or not you've ever smoked. lung cancer can affect anyone. people will gather in d.c. for a 5k run called breathe deep d.c. joining us are linda wenger, the senior vice president for longevity. and dr. alex spira is director of the virginia cancer specialist institute. thank you all for coming and let

founder of breathe deep d.c. who just passed a few days ago. >> yes. >> jerry sorken. >> jerry was an incredible, incredible person. sad day for us at longevity. he was also the vice chair for the organization but he was just such a mentor to those who had been diagnosed, an advocate for the cause, fanned he was here with us today he would be telling us that we cannot stop, we have to continue to fight lung cancer. >> he had liv >> for nine years. >> that is a long time. >> that is a very long time. >> dr. spira, there are lots of advances in treatment and research but the fact is, nine years is a long time, isn't it? >> nine years is a very long time for lung cancer. lung cancer is not the same disease it was five years ago. lots of new treatments and options but yes, nine years is incredibly long. >> many still link lung cancer to smoking but the fact is you

smoker and still be at risk of developing this disease. >> so, yes, traditionally we think smoking is one of the biggest causes and it still is but given the decrease in smoking, we're seeing a lot more nonsmokers develop lung cancer. more than 50% are nonsmokers. >> if a person were to ask you why that is, is there an answer. >> we're talking about cancer. cancer develops in every organ of the body. i tell everybody, lungs are the body's filters. they're prone to develop cancer. >> smoking puts you in the highest risk category. >> yes, it does. >> 30% of all cancer deaths are lung cancers. >> correct. >> linda, another thing people may not know is how many different cancers there are that fall within the lung cancer category. can you talk about that? >> i can. there are quite a number of types of lung cancer.

it could be by where it is found. there are so many different types and we say there are lung cancers and not lung cancer. the exciting thing about what is happening in research today is that we're actually targeting some of the particular mutations and some of the lung cancers with personalized treatments so there is a lot of hope for people who are diagnosed with lung cancer that we didn't have a few years ago. >> hope is what the walk on november 6th is all about, isn't it? >> it is. in fact, for the walk, it is really a celebration for our survivors to come together. for many of the survivors, it is the first time that they have met other people who have been diagnosed with lung cancer so it is a very emotional and moving day. >> dr. spira, when it comes to screening and early diagnosis, that is a big challenge, isn't it? >> it is a very big challenge. the problem is screening is not

nonsmokers are developing it so it is hard to screen the entire population. it is hard to come up with an easy, good, cheap test that can be done for the general population. we're better than what we were but it is still a challenge. >> one of the reasons it is a challenge is when it comes to lung cancer, there are no symptoms until there is an advancement of the disease. >> so most patients that have a symptom have advanced disease. we get lucky sometimes. and find an early stage lung cancer. most patients are much more advanced. >> is it something you recommend people go looking for. >> there are specific guidelines. if you're high-risk, we recommend, otherwise we don't recommend screening yet. >> those in highest risk are younger at higher risk than those middle age? >> patients older, older 50 to

pack to a pack a day for many years. >> my dad stopped smoking in his 40s. he is now 96. obviously he has gotten a lot of years and it was a good thing he stopped, but what a person who has stopped 20 years ago still need look at that? >> still a debate. if you stop smoking, you're still at risk if you develop lung cancer. that is something people should bring up with their doctor. >> we'll take a we'll continue talking about lung cancer and longevity's deep

there is an app for just about anything these days. soon there will be an app for patients treated for lung cancer. longevity developed this. >> the lung cancer navigator app is going to be available in november and it allows patients who are undergoing treatment to manage everything about their healthcare in the palm of their

customized information about lung cancer. they can keep track of their schedules, appointments, who is going to give them ride teetz doctor. questions for the doctor and they can create teams of their healthcare team and support team and they can also speak to each other on the app. it is very exciting. >> dr. spira there, is so much new on the treatment front, isn't there? >> we have a lot more things to offer our patients which is wonderful. a few years back, we had a couple of chemotherapy immunotherapy which is changing it for a lot of patients. there will be a lot more in clinical studies. it is great, but there are a lot of new options for patients to consider right now. >> what are the majority of the patients, of your patients use. >> most still get chemotherapy but we're still using now a lot of immunotherapy, a new area of research. lots of options there.

the lung cancer those are the things we're using in general and it will be more new treatments and less chemo in the future. >> we were talking about screening, ct scans, is that one of the new screening methods? >> ct scans are really the only good screening method out there right now. there was data that shows it does help certain patient populations but it is inconvenient, not cheap, and not universally done. >> i know that x-raies, whenever you go to the hospital, the first thing they do is give you a chest x-ray. >> it really doesn't pick anything up. >> who do you room -- who should get a ct scan? >> patients who are usually older than 50 or 60 who have smoked more than half a pack or a pack a day for 20 years, in general is what i think about. programs do it. you need to get a doctor but there are lots of hospitals that will set you up for this that

next sunday, people are going to put their walking shoes on and meet at the sylvan theater. >> registration starts at 9:00. the walk will begin promptly at 10:00. we usually have about 1,500 people that come out and join us. we would love for everybody to come out and help us to fight lung cancer. everyone is welcome. the route is wheelchair accessible. dress warmly. >> there is a fee? >> there is a go ahead and go to our website which is www point lungevity.org/d.c. and sign up for the walk. if you don't do it before the walk, we still want you to come down and connect with us that day and join our efforts. >> cheer the walkers on. >> absolutely. >> what is the goal. what is your goal this year? >> our fund raising goal this year is $300,000 over -- since

do at this walk may not only do we raise a lot of revenue invested into the research needed for early intervention and the app we have developed, but it is also to help raise awareness and that really is the key. we need people to start talking about lung cancer so people can understand what we can do and what they can do to make a difference. >> we should point out that the walk in d.c. is one of many walks across the country. >> we have 60 or so the country. it is a grass roots program of survivors and physicians and family members just getting together to celebrate the people living with lung cancer and offer hope to everybody. >> dr. spira, the doctor's advice. >> go talk about symptoms. don't smoke. and be mindful of anything that doesn't get better, and just talk to your family. >> all right. dr. spira, linda and becky.

nbc 4 is a media partner for brief deep d.c. and our own doug kammerer will be breathing deep with you. he will be emceeing on the 6th of november. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. we'll be right back.

making the transition to civilian life and navigating meaningful career paths can be a daunting task for veterans, wounded warriors and spouses but staffing network is doing it and doing it well using an approach working for the veteran and the employer. joining us now are david mure junior, senior vice president of the veteran's staffing network. robert simpson works for the easter seals and nathaniel corbin is responsible for security. thankfully there are so many

programs out there now that are helping veterans and their families find their sea legs if you will, after deployment. your program is different. what makes it different? >> well, i think to begin with, our program was designed to be the only self sustaining solution for veteran employment challenges. out of all of the thousands of programs that literally existed over the years, one unique commonality is they've been funded by government philanthropy. they change where they donate their money, so the innovation is we take the job ready men and women we're working with and engage the employer community almost like a commercial staffing firm. multi billion dollar agency. they're spending money on staffing services.

fees we receive for making the replacement, instead of going into the pockets of somebody for profit. not that i have anything against profit, mind you, in our case, they go right back in and pay directly for the salaries of career coaches working for 150 to 200 people at a time to help prepare them to be job ready. they hire a veteran but they're helping dozens of others behind them. >> veterans. you came in as a temp. >> i came in as a temp to hire april of last year. i became permanent june this year. that was a great experience with veteran staffing network with the transition from military to civilian. >> and for you, the transition, was it easy? was it tough? >> getting the disabilities, the

some employers do not like to hire ptsd veterans. it is like a red flag so sometimes using services is very efficient. >> you're all veterans and know intimately the challenges of coming home and reintegrate. the sense of isolation many feel when they come back from deployment and the dis experience, i came home from vietnam in 1970. it took me a long time to come, to finally come home. i came home in 1985 mentally and emotionally and our brothers and sisters, many of them are still on the other side of the wire and it is our job to bring them home. with employment, mental health,

we're all vets helping vets. when we help them about employment, we do a comprehensive assessment, mental health background, substance abuse, legal history, all that stuff. our job is really preparing them to be ready for employment. >> you prepare them in the way you prepare them really works better for the employer. many veterans but they're reluctant to let them go if things don't work out. >> everybody wants to hire a hero. we want to be on board with the mission but we're scared to death to fire a hero. when you look at the military population today, less than 1% of the work force is actually worn the uniform. military communities are the largest dated communities in the world inside the walls of the bases is everything a family could want. grocery stores, shopping malls, movie theaters, we don't live

1940s when everybody knew somebody who that was a vet. there is a lot of misunderstanding. when i came out as gunner. i thought i could hide behind a rock. i had other skills inherent in the rank. what we're trying to do is when working with the veteran is help them understand all of the different trainings they've received, the individual never thought about that. i just did my job, when they interview with a employer, they can't articulate the value statement effectively. we coach them to be able to do that. on the flip side, when we're working with employers, we help them to understand the person that they're actually interviewing. change the way they ask questions so they're pulling the valuable information out of the veterans. >> we'll continue talking with the veteran staffing network after a break.

welcome back. nate, you spent seven years in the army and now working in security. how did you get your job? >> i applied through craigslist with vsn and i was contacted by a recruiter and went through the office and did resum? tweaking to better explain my military career over to civilian skills really were. >> from a veteran 101 you can talk the jargon but a civilian wouldn't understand that. with the career coaching and resum? development, they helped me explain that better. >> there are so many veterans who have skills like nate and who need help with the resum?s and translations. then they have the other issues. many veterans are on the street

support. >> yes. >> and assistance to get them job ready. >> well, the veterans who actually live on the street, our job is to get them placed into housing first. either a shelter, transitional living program. once they get the foundation, that is when we begin to work with them. we update the resum?s, help them with job interviewing techniques. other topics about one of the problems with our homeless vets, you can ask any homeless vet, how many jobs have you had in your life and they will say, well, you know what, i had about 1,000 jobs, so we're saying employment is not your problem. holding onto the job. it is part of the preparation, after they get the job, we follow them through and make contact with them every bi-

we do the personal contact with the veterans and say easter seals cares about us and they pass it onto the next veteran. we do a lot of research at the va medical centers, transitional houses to reach the homeless vets. >> those are all important needs, david. they do have to be ready in order to carry on in an employment situation, so what is the process when they come to you. >> so, wechb a -- >> how do they voved. >> we have a curriculum built around the skill searching. 200 learning objects. what does job search mean to what do i want to be when i grow up to you can't have an e-mail machine gunner 48 @yahoo.com. we take a poorly written resum? and put them to a hunter.

a real innovation that is a proprietary thing for easter seals and veteran staffing network is we converted the curriculum previously converted one-on-one, and converted it to an e learning platform. it can be consumed. you don't need to talk to a career coach to understand you don't have your picture on your resum?. you should be on linkd in. it maximized the time for our coaches and allows theer own time. >> the employers. when they pay for services, they have skin in the game. they're not looking for a poster child. they're looking for a worker that will contribute to the families. >> you mentioned the family. anyone in uniform or helped somebody in uniform. >> care givers, spouses, kids who bounced around the planet. if you've worn the uniform or helped somebody, we want to help you.

got a new lease on life? >> yes. i think i do. it was better for me going through vsn versus the job search. it can be very difficult, like he said, putting the resum? on there, hoping it goes through versus going to vsn. they have the connections with the employers that can put you in place. >> do you like your job now? >> i love my job now. >> do you feel stable and secure? >> yes, i do feel stable and secure, yes. >> okay. that is >> yes, it is. it is very important. >> all right. >> if they don't like it, they won't be around long. >> moving to to the 2,000 jobs. >> and if i could say, what the employer gets by hiring a vet, they get a loyal employee, dedicated, leadership, trust worthy, and probably one of the best employers for the employer if they hire a vet. >> thank you all and thank you

>> thank you very much. >> and thank you. i'm pat lawson muse.

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that breaking news, two people dead in a multiple shooting. prince george's county police say shots were fired into a crowd on walker mill road and capital heights. one of the victims is a teen. we know six been wounded. we'll stay on top of this story as we find out more. >> it is also a busy morning for the tens of thousands running in this year's marine corps marathon. we have a team of reporters sharing the inspirational stories as they race through all of the 26.2 miles. >> they're also happy to be up with us on sunday morning. look at the faces. they're so excited. >> a major traffic impact this morning. we're here to break down the best way to get around everything.