Jess Kalvaitis Pray For Jess Kalvaitis

At the beginning of May Jess went to the doctors because she had been coughing up blood. During an appointment with a pulmonologist an x-ray showed a mass in the upper right lobe of her lung. Further testing revealed that the mass was a tumor that was pushing on her trachea which was why she was coughing up blood. The biopsy results of the tumor showed it to be an atypical carcinoid tumor. This is not a common type of lung cancer, and is only found in 1-2% of all lung cancers.

The fact that Jess was just entering her second trimester of pregnancy made the diagnosis all the more difficult. A team of doctors comprised of medical oncologists, pulmonologists, thoracic surgery and obgyn were brought together to come up with the best treatment plan for Jess and her baby.

More tests were run to confirm the tumor type and to confirm that the cancer had not spread to other areas before a plan was solidified. These tests showed that the tumor had grown since the original scans and that treatment needed to start more immediately. The original hope was to wait until the baby was older before any treatment started, but the doctors informed Jess and Keith that they could not wait too much longer to begin treatment.

The treatment for this type of cancer would be surgery to remove the cancer, either by removing part of all of her right lung. For this type of cancer chemo and radiation are typically not done. The good news with this is that once the surgery is over Jess will technically be considered "cured" or in remission.

Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday June 12th.


Both Jess and Keith are firm believers of Christ, with strong faiths. They firmly believe in God's plan for their lives and are placing their trust in Him at this time. Please keep both of them and baby K in your prayers as they go through this together.


You can check back here for updates on Jess.