A surprise, late-stage lung cancer diagnosis last fall threatened to take one of the District region’s most recognizable voices off the air. But after successful robot-assisted surgery, WTOP News reporter Neal Augenstein says doctors tell him there’s no longer any sign of the deadly disease in his lungs.

Mr. Augenstein underwent a robot-assisted lobectomy that removed the upper lobe of his left lung. 

The longtime WTOP reporter became a candidate for the surgery after the success of his targeted one-pill-a-day therapy that shrank his cancerous cells and stunted their ability to spread.

“I’m feeling terrific,” Mr. Augenstein, 63, told The Washington Times. “The last five months have been a whirlwind. Thankfully, the news has continued to be good.”

After his diagnosis, Mr. Augenstein posted regular updates about his treatment on WTOP’s website — and continued to keep radio listeners informed on the region’s latest news, seldom missing a day of work.

Mr. Augenstein’s dulcet tones and characteristic cadence — specifically his report sign-offs, or lockouts — have made him a fan favorite among area listeners, who showered him with well-wishes when he said his condition had improved.

“I’m overwhelmed by the kindness and support of people who only know me from the radio,” he said. “And, of course, my co-workers have been so wonderfully supportive and understanding and worked with me so that I can both continue to work and continue to get better.”

Mr. Augenstein’s prescription now is to walk as much as possible, eat healthily and keep taking his pill therapy. He does carry one memento from his tumultuous time with cancer — a lingering cough — but doesn’t see it as a problem.

A persistent, dry cough was Mr. Augenstein’s first indication that he was unwell last September. A series of trips to doctors checked off, one by one, all of the “good” outcomes (such as pneumonia and allergies) from the list of possibilities. 

A CAT scan later revealed what doctors called an opacity in his left lung, and Mr. Augenstein couldn’t help but research what that lingo meant.

“I saw the word mass. I saw the word tumor,” Mr. Augenstein said. “Of course, it’s going through my mind that this could be a problem.”

Doctors eventually told him his diagnosis in November: stage 4 adenocarcinoma. Malignant lesions and lymph nodes were detected in both of his lungs.

Mr. Augenstein was stunned. He never smoked, in part because he remembers he and his brother getting car sick in the back of the family station wagon while his parents puffed cigarettes. 

That decision was reinforced later in life when his father, who quit smoking at 40, was diagnosed with lung cancer as an 80-year-old.  

Doctors weren’t going to let him dwell on the bad news. He was immediately scheduled to meet with an oncologist, radiologist and surgeon and armed with a treatment plan.

Meanwhile, Mr. Augenstein tried to avoid going down research rabbit holes that often heightened his anxiety. “Google can be a dastardly place,” as he put it. To preserve his sanity, he never looked up the expected lifespans of people who come down with late-stage cancer.

If learning about the disease wasn’t hard enough, Mr. Augenstein had to share the diagnosis with his two teenage children.

“The most difficult part of this whole thing was coming home from the hospital [on] the night after being told that I had cancer and explaining that to my kids,” he said. “That was a task that I absolutely was not looking forward to.”

Mr. Augenstein and his wife were frank with their children, but also assured them that life would go on. 

Just like Dad was missing work only if absolutely necessary, the kids weren’t going to stop doing their after-school activities. More so, the parents made sure to instill a sense of confidence in his treatment plan designed by Mr. Augenstein’s doctors.

They had good reason to. Targeted therapies have been a revelation in cancer treatment over the past decade, according to Dr. Susan Scott, an assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

She told The Times that 10 years ago advanced lung cancer had a similar chance of survival as pancreatic cancer — one of the most aggressive forms of the disease. Chemotherapy was the only treatment option back then, and people on average only lived for about 18 months after they were diagnosed.

But Dr. Scott said that, from the outside looking in, it appeared Mr. Augenstein had “an excellent response to the osimertinib therapy” and his medical team performed the surgery to further ensure he was protected against the disease’s resurgence.

There may be an element of cosmic justice in a nonsmoker’s swift recovery from lung cancer, but unfortunately, Mr. Augenstein’s case isn’t rare. 

About 10-20% of people who develop lung cancer are nonsmokers. Conversely, 80-90% of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer, according to most research on the topic.

“Certainly the rates of nonsmoking associated lung cancer are increasing, and particularly in younger folks and in women,” Dr. Scott told The Times. “We don’t know why. We think there’s probably an environmental exposure that contributes to this, probably some genetic predisposition. But we don’t have anything specific to point to.”

There’s an important asterisk to Mr. Augenstein’s current condition — there’s no cure for stage 4 lung cancer. 

He said he’ll continue to get regular CT scans in the months to come. In his latest update following his surgery, Mr. Augenstein shared that doctors will monitor him as if he were someone who has active cancer.

Mr. Augenstein accepts that he’ll never hear the words “You’re cured.” But in his mind “If I never hear [that] phrase and I live another 40 happy, healthy years, I’ll take that.”

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.