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Blount County native Charlie Mynatt is a husband, father of two teenage daughters, a hard worker and a tenacious fighter against a disease you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Lung cancer.

He was diagnosed in January 2004 after doctors discovered a superficial blood clot in his leg back in November 2003. He went for a physical, had a chest x-ray and more tests a short time later. Nothing was found. Then Mynatt, 53, was driving home in December of that same year and suffered what his doctors now know was a mini stroke. Mynatt thought it was only an eye problem because he suffered some blurred vision.

But shortness of breath would tell the real story. He was ordered to undergo a spiral CT (computerized tomography) scan, and that's when a blood clot and tumor in his lung were found. A biopsy revealed the worst: the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes.

His is called non-small cell lung cancer and is the adenocarcinoma type, the most common.

Chemotherapy was begun in late January 2004. In addition, he received 37 daily radiation treatments at the same time. Mynatt, who's wife Tina described as a workaholic, managed to only miss one day of work during that time. He worked at Knoxville Sheet Metal.

After discovering during a PET (positron emission tomography) scan that a lymph node in his neck was cancerous, Charlie was told he had stage 4 lung cancer.

Speaking out

"I have been trying to get more awareness on lung cancer," Tina said on a recent Friday afternoon at the couple's Louisville home. She said there is still a stigma attached to the disease -- basically that people know better than to smoke and they have brought it on themselves.

"Nobody deserves cancer," she said.

According to Dr. Bruce Roberts, pulmonologist at Blount Memorial Hospital, the survival rate for lung cancer is only 15 percent over five years.

"That's an improvement," he said. "When I was going through training, it was 8 percent. It's still pretty poor."

One of the problems, Tina believes, is that research on lung cancer isn't being done at the rate for other cancers like breast or colon or prostate.

According to the LUNGevity Foundation, $1,723 was spent on research per lung cancer death, in 2004. That compares to $13,953 per breast cancer death, $10,318 per prostate death, and $4,618 per colorectal death.

That's in spite of the fact lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women. There were 173,700 new cases of lung cancer and 160,440 deaths from lung cancer in this country in 2004. And the rate for women continues to rise.

According to the American Lung Association, 87 percent of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are proven cancer-causing carcinogens.

Still fighting

Since his diagnosis, Charlie has suffered from neuropathy to his colon, more blood clots, participated in clinical trials, tried experimental drugs and undergone more chemotherapy. The tumors were shrinking, but this past January, he got a viral infection and had both ear and sinus infections and pneumonitis. Since then, Charlie has been struggling with coughing, weakness and back pain. Pneumonia is his latest battle.

You only have to listen to Tina and others like her to understand the urgency.

"Lung cancer kills more than colon, prostate and breast cancer combined," Tina said. "You could throw a couple more in there. And the survival rate is so very, very low."

There really is no early detection for lung cancer, Roberts said. By the time you have symptoms, the disease has already spread, he explained.

Blood clots in the legs can also be signs of gastro-intestinal malignancies, breast cancers and other cancers, the pulmonologist said.

"Obviously, the symptoms with lung cancer are cough, chest pain, coughing up blood especially, and weight loss -- the usual systemic symptoms that you see with a lot of diseases," he said.

X-rays, just as in Charlie's case, can't pick up anything in the lungs until it is 1 to 2 centimeters. A CT scan is better, Roberts said, but this isn't a routine screen.

"We like to see the ones come in who have little tiny lesions on the lung," Roberts said. "Because they can be taken out."

A ring of support

Most patients diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer have a prognosis of only three to six months, according to Roberts. Charlie has beaten those odds already.

"It is a miracle he is still here," Tina said. The couple will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in August.

Tina is part of an online support group called Lung Cancer Support Community. Patients and their families share their stories on the Web site (lchelp.org) and offer encouragement and treatment options. Tina said it has been a godsend.

The recent deaths of TV newsman Peter Jennings and Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, have put the spotlight briefly on lung cancer. The problem is, Tina said, once you are diagnosed, you don't have much time to play the advocate role. Sixty percent of those diagnosed die within a year.

Tina is Charlie's full-time caregiver. He has had to go on disability but continues to fight his cancer. As long as she is able, this wife and mother will continue to speak out about this most deadly cancer.

"I want things to change in the future," Tina said. "I want other people to survive. I want there to be research so there will be early detection.."

The Mynatts credit Charlie's physicians' aggressive approach for getting him this far, and also the prayer of friends and complete strangers.

This is a battle that wages on.