Novant Health Cancer Institute - Elizabeth (Thoracic Oncology)

Reviews

• RG

  Randy Gibson Gibson

  Jan 26, 2024
  5.0
  Great
• DW

  Diane Woods

  Oct 14, 2022
  5.0
  Dr. Kumar and his staff are incredible. Professional, informative, compassionate and made sure we understood what my difficult operation was all about. I trust him and highly recommend him and his staff. Thank you Doc!!!
• JK

  Julie Kelly

  Jul 13, 2022
  4.0
  Dr. Kumar had thoroughly reviewed my case before I showed up. The first thing he did when came in was tell me all of the pertinent details of my case so that I didn't have to repeat myself and so that I felt confident that he knew why I was there and had already looked at my images. He made my options clear and made the risks as clear as he could. He described the surgical procedure he would do and why and what the complications could be as well as recovery time. Edit: I'm updating this long after the fact, but I wanted to note that after surgery I had a persistent cough that I kept getting told was normal, but it was so bad that I couldn't speak sometimes and had to get a white board to communicate with my family. This went on for months. The surgeon did send my tumor for biomarker testing, which was great. He also referred me to a robotic bronchoscopy in Pinehurst so that I could know for sure that my mass was cancer before surgery. However, the paperwork for the pathology came back with some inconsistencies that made the difference between stage 1A and 1B. I had to request a referral to an oncologist despite being diagnosed with lung cancer as the surgeon felt confident the surgery had cured me. I certainly hope he was right, but lung cancer has a 30-40% recurrence rate even in early stage, and there are new treatments available even for early stage to prevent recurrence. The difference between 1A and 1B was the difference between my eligibility for targeted therapy proven to reduce the chance of recurrence in the first 3 three years in half. The thoracic oncologist I met with told me I was not eligible for targeted therapy as she misread the biomarker report as listing the eligible drugs in order of efficacy. They were actually in alphabetic order. She also told me that EGFR exon 19 deletion is an uncommon biomarker. It is actually one of the most common ones, and I am glad I did my own reading and found that I was most likely eligible for targeted therapy. About a month after surgery, I had a second opinion at Duke, who did the pathology again due to the inconsistency and confirmed I was stage 1B and placed me on targeted therapy with more frequent surveillance scans, including brain MRI, as this type of lung cancer is nearly as likely to recur in the brain as in the lungs. Four months after surgery, they drained a pleural effusion that had been making me cough and pulled 500ml of fluid from my lung, which made me feel much better, resolved the cough, and actually allowed me to sing again, which I had been afraid might I might never be able to do again. All of that is to say that you may receive excellent care here, but you should also look up the information on your reports and try to learn everything you can. If you feel unsure at any point, it's totally ok to get a second opinion. I'm still grateful for Dr. Kumar- I just also want to encourage cancer patients to advocate for yourself as no one knows your case better than you do!