FAIRFIELD -- She sat, rigid in her seat, waiting for her oncologist to enter the room with a report that could amount to a death sentence.

Lois Cooper, a 65-year-old lung cancer survivor, endures this ritual every three months -- days of tension leading up to her checkup, followed either by a week or so of elation or else the terrible news that the cancer has returned.

"I come to these with mixed feelings," she said. "If I get good news, I'll be walking on six feet of air --"

The entry of her oncologist allowed her to not finish with the other possibility.

She'd beaten the odds already; at five years since her original diagnosis, she's lived longer than doctors would have predicted, after two surgeries to remove the left upper lobe of her lung and part of an adrenal gland.

According to her oncologist, Dr. Andrew Hertler, who also serves as Medical Director of the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, 80 percent of patients die within two years of a lung cancer diagnosis.

More people die of lung cancer than any other type of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 200,000 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The same year, 160,000 died from lung cancer.

Maine ranks 13th-worst in the nation for incidents of lung cancer per capita (99 out of every 100,000 people), according to the CDC.

Three types of cancer -- prostate, breast and lung -- are the most common cancers, but lung cancer by far is the most deadly, Hertler said.

"One statistic we rarely hear is that 70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer will not die from breast cancer," he said. "Whereas, with lung cancer, 80 percent of people die. It's basically that we don't have any really good treatments for it."

Hertler said physicians also do not have any effective ways to screen for lung cancer. As a result, lung cancer usually spreads throughout the lungs and into other parts of the body long before being detected.

Medical advances help prolong some lives, but the effectiveness of available treatments is still quite limited, Hertler said.

"When I was trained 20 years ago as an oncologist, you never had people like Lois -- I was told if lung cancer came back, it wasn't even worth treating," Hertler said. "There are glimmers of hope; we're doing a little bit better, but the numbers are still staggering."

Cooper, who retired several years ago after teaching health education at Waterville Senior High School for nearly 30 years, stays active, working as a consultant for a state-sponsored HIV education campaign. She also runs her own small business, called "Cooper's Creative Banners," constructing championship banners for schools in the state.

"So I'm really only retired from teaching," Cooper said with a laugh.

She and her husband of 45 years, Earl "Pete" Cooper, have two children and four grandchildren. Cooper naturally has an upbeat disposition, but some days are better than others.

"At first, I couldn't believe my body had failed me," she said. "I'd been good to myself. But (when receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer) you have to face your own mortality."

One of the first questions people ask when they discover she has lung cancer is whether she was a smoker, Cooper said. Turns out, she picked up the habit when she was in college -- but hasn't smoked in 26 years. Smoking may or may not have been what caused her lung cancer.

"Certainly, there are many people now who are getting lung cancer, and were never smokers," Hertler said.

Hertler said that, because cancer has been twice detected in Cooper, chances of its reoccurrence are quite high. But her positive attitude may explain part of her longevity, he said.

Cooper said her diagnosis makes her appreciate every day she gets.

"People look at me strange when I say this is one of the best things that ever happened to me," Cooper said. "It's given me a whole new perspective on life."

But sitting in the doctor's office awaiting the results of her CAT scan and blood work is still never easy.

After a few minutes of queries about the numbness of her feet and other minor symptoms, Hertler delivered the message Cooper had awaited with such trepidation:

"I was just looking at your scan, and it looks the same as before," he said. In other words, he said, "As far as I can tell, it looks like you're fine."

Cooper beamed, and raised her fists in a tiny gesture of victory.

"Thank you for bringing me good news," she said.

"I like to bring good news," he said. "It's always a pleasure. Sometimes, I have to bring news that is not so good."

Hertler congratulated her on how well she has held up physically and emotionally.

"Do you know how few lung cancer patients I see five years out?" he said.

Cooper said she and her husband would probably celebrate the occasion by going out to dinner and having a couple of large margaritas. Her euphoria would last for a week at least, she said, pushing through the glass doors of the cancer care center.

"See? The sun is brighter, the grass is greener, the trees are prettier," she said. "Today is a good day."

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com