Primary care seen from both sides : Ernst and Gregor
For most people, primary care is where a symptom is first taken seriously. It is where a finding either moves quickly towards an answer or waits to be looked at again.
This page brings together two people on either side of that moment in Bern, Switzerland.
Ernst is living with non-small-cell lung cancer, diagnosed in January 2026. Professor Gregor Kocher is a thoracic surgeon, one of the professionals whose work begins when a suspicion has to become a diagnosis.
Their accounts meet in the same place: the value of moving quickly from a first sign to a firm answer.
Ernst
"At Christmas I had a strange pain under my left shoulder blade and all along my left arm, all the way to my fingertips. Just before Christmas, while the pain was still light, I had it checked by my family doctor. The X-ray on his older machine clearly showed a differently coloured part at the top of my left lung. It was judged as no emergency, to be checked more closely after New Year.
The symptoms got stronger by the day and needed more and more painkillers, and that is what urged me to seek professional help.
MRI and CT scans then showed irregularities at the top of my left lung and in the centre of my right lung. By mid-January, biomarker analysis of tissue from biopsies revealed that these were non-small-cell lung cancer. An oncologist explained the therapy to me in detail, including chemo and two operations as recommended by the tumour board, with an approximate timeline of six months to then be cancer free.
I wish the anomalies on my family doctor's X-ray had been checked immediately with the modern scans available in hospital, the CT and CT-PET, rather than left until after the holidays."
Professor Gregor Kocher
"I am a thoracic surgeon, so my work centres on diagnostics and on the therapeutic recommendations that follow. I see these conversations from the other side, at the point where a suspicion has to become a diagnosis.
When someone comes with a suspicion of cancer, it warrants timely diagnostics, without making the person uncomfortable. Unclear lung nodules are always a challenge. In case of any doubt, a histopathologic diagnosis, confirmed from tissue, is always needed.
My reflection is simple. Push for early tissue diagnosis, because early diagnosis is key to the right therapy, and therefore to a good prognosis."
