How a broken limb led to non-smoker's lung cancer diagnosis years later

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Leslie Stoll developed a blood clot that led to a pulmonary embolism after she broke her leg in 2014. The embolism was treated, but another occurred when Stoll had surgery on her foot years later. After the treatment, she was referred to a hematologist who could prescribe blood thinners and monitor the clot.

At an appointment in 2024, the hematologist recommended a CT scan. It showed a small anomaly in her lungs. Stoll wasn't worried: She was an athlete and former boxer who had never smoked. Her lung function felt normal.

"I tried to reassure him that it was nothing, and it was probably something that was damaged from my pulmonary embolism, and he didn't think I was very good at diagnosing myself," Stoll told CBS News. "He was like, 'Well, it probably is nothing, but let's schedule a PET scan, just to check.'"

Stoll scheduled the test, but still doubted there was anything wrong, even telling the exam tech that she believed she was just going through the motions. Shortly after the scan, results saying that "malignancy could not be ruled out" were uploaded to an online patient portal. Then Stoll's doctor called and asked her to come in the next day. Stoll's doctor recommended a lung biopsy.

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The biopsy revealed that Stoll had Stage One lung cancer, becoming one of the small but rising number of people diagnosed with the disease despite never smoking.

"I was just shocked at the fact that it could happen to me, disappointed that it could happen to me," Stoll said. "I would love to have gone through life thinking I was immune to cancer, that it couldn't get me. This was a big awakening that I might check 'very healthy' on my doctor's forms when I go in every year, but all of a sudden I was not very healthy."

Lung cancer in "never-smokers"

Dr. Jonathan Villena-Vargas, a thoracic surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told CBS News in February that non-smokers with lung cancer are more common than people might expect. "Never-smokers" account for about 20% of the 250,000 new lung cancer diagnoses each year, said Villena-Vargas, who was not involved in Stoll's care.

Dr. Lucas Delasos, an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic who did not treat Stoll, said women, particularly those of Asian descent, are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer despite never smoking.

Younger non-smoking patients are also more likely to have mutations that drive the disease's growth, Delasos said. Identifying those mutations allows for more personalized treatment.

Some of the increase in diagnoses may come from an increased awareness, Delasos said. A spot that might have been ignored or missed by earlier technology is now more likely to be tested and diagnosed, he said. Researchers are also studying environmental factors, like radon gas or other hazardous materials.

"Too young to not be aggressive"

Stoll was referred to Dr. Andrew Arndt, a thoracic surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. He encouraged her to treat the cancer with a robotic surgery that would remove a section of her right lung's lower lobe.

Stoll worried the operation would impact her ability to exercise or take part in daily life. To reassure her, Arndt sketched her lung and drew what the minimally invasive operation would entail.

"He said I was too young to ignore this, I was too young to not be aggressive with it," Stoll said. She agreed to the surgery.

During the procedure, Arndt biopsied Stoll's lymph nodes to confirm the cancer hadn't spread. The tests were negative, meaning Stoll didn't have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

Further tests found that she had no evidence of cancer after the surgery, Arndt said.

"I was able to get my life back"

Recovery felt harder than surgery, Stoll said. Before, she had easily been able to run for miles at a time. The day after the operation, Stoll "could barely walk down the hall." Being unable to exercise as usual felt like the cancer "took away some of my personality," Stoll said.

As the days ticked by, Stoll slowly improved. She went from trudging down the hall to taking long walks in her neighborhood. Hills became less of a struggle. When she was cleared for full activity, she celebrated with a "very slow" run. Nine months after the surgery, she climbed Phoenix's Camelback Mountain, a difficult trek that can take up to three hours.

"I was just determined to take some action to get back to my old self as soon as possible," Stoll said.

Now, about six months after her surgery, Stoll is back to her regular life. She works out and walks her dog twice a day. Arndt's drawing of her lung sits on her mantle as a reminder of what she went through. She has regular scans to make sure the cancer has not returned. Stoll said she is careful to attend all of her follow-up appointments, aware that those precautions were key to diagnosing her cancer early.

"I was able to stop my cancer from taking control of my life, and I was able to get my life back," Stoll said. "If I had never gone to that follow-up appointment, then I might still have cancer growing inside me."

Edited by Lucia I Suarez Sang