Any cancer diagnosis is devastating,

but patients with lung cancer face an especially daunting journey.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world.

It's difficult to detect in its early stages

and hard to treat once it's finally discovered.

But there's hope on the horizon.

Dr. Avram Spira is leading a multidisciplinary team

that's taking a convergent approach to target the root cause of the disease

and detect lung cancer before it develops to help improve patient outcomes.

It's all part of his efforts as global head of the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson.

Scientific American custom media recently sat down with Dr. Spira

to learn more about his work and the future of lung cancer treatment.

Dr. Avis Spira learned about the devastating effects of lung cancer early in his career.

I was a medical resident at the time, all of a sudden I got a call one weekend.

It was about his aunt.

She was full of life, always, since I had known her from a young age

and had lived a very healthy life.

Never smoked, exercise ate well.

But she had fluid around her lungs.

And it turned out within a few days the diagnosis was having stage four lung cancer

and her prognosis was she would only live a few months.

While she fought valiantly against the disease, she died within a year of her diagnosis.

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