Health
US Navy veteran beats cancer with experimental treatment and reliance on faith
After facing the threat of active war, many veterans also wage battles with cancer.
One of those is John Ryan of Aldie, Virginia – a U.S. Navy veteran who was diagnosed with lung cancer after serving in the military for 30 years.
Since he enlisted in October 1962, much of the commander’s military service has been “shrouded in secrecy,” according to a November 2024 report from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI).
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In an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital, Ryan shared that he joined the “nuclear power program” amid the Cuban Missile Crisis, during which he embarked on about a dozen patrols on nuclear submarines.
U.S. Destroyer inspects a Soviet freighter off the coast of Cuba on Nov. 12, 1962. (Getty Images)
Ryan retired from active military service in 1992, and then retired full-time in 2000 to spend time with his family in Northern Virginia.
In 2013, Ryan called his doctor after he began spitting up blood and was sent to the emergency room. His diagnosis was grim: stage 4 adenocarcinoma, otherwise known as non-small cell lung cancer.
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Ryan underwent four sessions of chemotherapy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but he did not improve. He also suffered from residual side effects from both chemo and cancer, including fatigue, pain, weight loss and pleural effusion.
Upon seeking a second opinion, Ryan met Julie Brahmer, MD, at John’s Hopkins in Maryland. He was enrolled in a clinical trial for immunotherapy — a type of treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer — that began in October 2013.
Veterans face a 25% higher risk of developing lung cancer due to exposure to toxic substances during military service, according to the VA. (iStock)
Lung cancer poses a larger threat to the veteran community, who faces a 25% higher risk due to exposure to toxic substances during military service, according to Brahmer.
After four infusions of nivolumab (Opdivo) over a nine-week period, Ryan’s CT scans revealed a 65% reduction in tumor size, he told Fox News Digital.
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“The 65% shrink was great and then that just kind of walked down – I was down to like 84% shrink,” he said. “And I was leading a normal life.”
Along with the immunotherapy, Ryan also underwent stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), a very targeted type of radiation, which resulted in the arrest of his tumor with virtually no side effects except for minor itching.
John Ryan (right) is pictured with Dr. Julie Brahmer, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medicine. (John Ryan)
Although his cancer improved, Ryan hit a major roadblock in 2022 when he began having trouble breathing and developed chronic pneumonitis, which he shared can occur in patients who receive immunotherapy for long periods of time.
“The psychological difficulty of staying indoors during COVID-19 was relatively easy, because I had a career being in nuclear submarines. And so, the claustrophobic thing wasn’t bad,” he reflected.
“Get a good night’s sleep, shake it off, and the next day you’ll have some blessings you can at least get started with.”
“But what was pretty challenging for me was the unknown path forward, with increased inflammation and reduced lung capacity,” he added.
Ryan’s immunotherapy journey lasted 100 months, amassing hundreds of 160-mile round trips to Johns Hopkins and more than 225 infusions. Today, the veteran is officially cancer-free.
“What was pretty challenging for me was the unknown path forward, with increased inflammation and reduced lung capacity,” said Ryan (not pictured). (iStock)
Ryan shared that one of the best pieces of advice he received was from a Walter Reed nurse, who was frank about the state of his health.
“She said, ‘Let’s cut to the chase, sonny boy, if you don’t take this, you’re going to die.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s sign off on it, shall we?’” he repeated.
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“And she said, ‘You need to take this seriously. Don’t look for things to worry about, because you can get really wrapped around the axle with the pressure and the uncertainty.’”
The nurse also told Ryan, “Working yourself up into a frenzy has absolutely no value. Get a good night’s sleep, shake it off, and the next day you’ll have some blessings you can at least get started with.”
Ryan (pictured at left) advised other cancer patients to avoid working themselves up “into a frenzy” and to stay positive. (John Ryan; iStock)
The veteran also credited his faith for giving him the strength to beat cancer. “You’ve got to draw your hope and courage from somewhere. Faith was high,” he said.
“I had a father who was a military disciplinarian, so I would say the worst thing that can happen is not going to be a bother to me. I’m just going to move forward. And then being with quality people [gave me] the encouragement to do that.”
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In a 2022 CRI seminar, Dr. Brahmer spoke about the success of immunotherapy development, labeling it as the “new foundation” for lung cancer in various stages, as well as other thoracic cancers like mesothelioma.
“New therapies will continue to build on these successes,” she said. “We still have a lot of work to do in these settings. We can certainly improve therapy.”
Dr. Julie Brahmer shared in a seminar how immunotherapy has become the top treatment option in some lung cancer cases. (iStock)
Brahmer expressed that “there is hope” for long-term control of the disease and potentially even a cure.
“It’s very important [for patients] to ask, ‘Is immunotherapy right for me, regardless of the stage and type of cancer that I have?’” she said.
“You’ve got to draw your hope and courage from somewhere. Faith was high.”
Ryan told CRI that immunotherapy represents an “attractive potential for a cure without the serious side effects related to surgery, chemotherapy or radiation,” adding that clinical trials are essential for “safe and viable drug and treatment regimen approvals.”
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
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They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
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“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
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The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
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“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
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Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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