Stage 4: 492 Real Stories
492 stories match stage 4. 319 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV Gastric Adenocarcinoma: Angel’s Survivor Story
Angel had months of heartburn, reflux, bloating and feeling full quickly before seeking medical care. Over-the-counter medicines had seemed enough at first, but further evaluation in December 2023 led to a diagnosis of Stage IV stomach cancer, specifically…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Adriana’s Patient Story
Adriana was 39 when a lump under her left armpit made her feel that something was wrong. On October 19, 2023, she learned that she had stage 4 breast cancer. Following her doctors' recommendation, Adriana underwent a mastectomy and then intensive chemotherapy…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Bethany’s Patient Story
Bethany was 34 when breast cancer was first found in both breasts and a lymph node. Earlier, she had felt breast and underarm lumps but pursued thermography and other nonstandard approaches before ultimately getting a mammogram and ultrasound that showed…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Dan’s Patient Story
Dan was a young father with 2 daughters when symptoms that seemed like a stubborn cold began in November 2018. The cold did not go away. Instead, he developed shortness of breath, chest tightness, and lost his voice. Steroids and inhalers did not help, and no…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Trevor’s Patient Story
Trevor Maxwell began feeling unusually exhausted in early 2018. Because he had dealt with anxiety and depression before, he first thought his symptoms were mental health-related. Bloodwork changed the direction of care, and his doctor pushed for a…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Nancy’s Patient Story
Nancy’s story is told by her husband, Brian. The two were high school sweethearts who reunited after 14 years apart and married in 1992. Their life changed on May 26, 2017, when numbness in Nancy’s arm and hand did not go away. She had experienced the…
Read this storyStage IV PIK3CA Breast Cancer: Abigail’s Patient Story
Abigail was 38, running a law firm, raising 2 young children, and breastfeeding when she felt a lump in her left breast in January 2017. She first thought it was a clogged duct. In April 2017, she was diagnosed with strongly hormone-positive breast cancer and…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lianne’s Patient Story
Lianne Kraemer was 37 when a small painful area in her left breast led to imaging and a biopsy in late 2013. She was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer involving lymph nodes. In 2014, she underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, reconstruction, and…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Julie’s Patient Story
Julie Campbell was living with chronic myelogenous leukemia when a second cancer changed her course. In October 2020, tests showed no leukemia in her blood and her leukemia chemotherapy was stopped. One month later, she was diagnosed with Stage IV…
Read this storyStage IV Gastric Cancer: Rachel’s Patient Story
Rachel Orth was 33 with three young children when surgery for what doctors thought was a benign ovarian mass revealed cancer in December 2020. She later learned that she had metastatic gastric cancer. The diagnosis came during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Adenocarcinoma: Emily’s Patient Story
Emily Bannister was 46, a physician, and a mother of 3 when breathing symptoms led to a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. She first noticed wheezing while lying down, shortness of breath, and a fast heart rate with stairs. An urgent-care X-ray looked like…
Read this storyStage IV MET Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Amy’s Patient Story
Amy’s third video focuses on living with Stage IV squamous cell lung cancer after several years of treatment. During her earlier Keytruda treatment period, she developed a painful bone metastasis in the femur and hips. The pain became severe enough that she…
Read this storyStage IV MET Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Amy’s Patient Story
Amy’s second video explains how biomarker testing changed the direction of her Stage IV squamous cell lung cancer care. Her first treatment was Keytruda, also called pembrolizumab, given as a monthly infusion. After each infusion, she received Xgeva to…
Read this storyStage IV MET Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Amy’s Patient Story
Amy’s first video starts with the diagnosis that changed her life in 2018. She had noticed a swollen lymph node for about 1 month and finally saw her primary care doctor. Bloodwork did not explain it, so she was sent for CT imaging of the lymph node. The scan…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Anabel’s Patient Story
Anabel’s breast cancer story was shaped by family loss. Her sister and mother had both died from cancer, and Anabel had cared for them before facing her own diagnosis. About 1.5 years after losing her mother, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Patient Story
This 32-year-old woman was diagnosed with Stage IV rectal adenocarcinoma after a routine physical found a liver abnormality in late 2015. Further tests showed a rectal tumor 5 to 8 cm from the anus, perirectal and presacral involvement, liver metastases, and…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Duncan’s Patient Story
Soon after Duncan Finigan was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, she told her oncologist that she struggled with the weight of the stage label. He encouraged her to think of the disease instead as a treatable, non-curable condition. That framing helped…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Almudena’s Survivor Story
Almudena was a medical student doing hospital rotations when rectal bleeding pushed her into the patient role. She had noticed blood in her stool 6 months earlier, at age 25, but was reassured that it was probably hemorrhoids. When bleeding happened again, a…
Read this storyStage IV Ovarian Cancer: Carolyn’s Patient Story
Carolyn Ridge was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer on June 1, 2012, at age 30. Along with the physical effects of cancer and early menopause, she experienced depression during treatment and found the emotional side of the diagnosis difficult to manage…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Fleur’s Patient Story
Fleur Profinet was 48 when she spoke about living with metastatic breast cancer and the way it changed family life. She first had breast cancer in 2013, then a recurrence beginning in 2020. Formal biomarker results, specific metastatic sites, surgery details…
Read this storyStage IV KRAS Colorectal Cancer: Kris’s Patient Story
Kris Sokolowski was 48 and diligent about checkups when a new, constant growling in his abdomen led to a scan in May 2021. His doctor saw a mass on his colon and liver and warned it might be Stage IV cancer. MRI and colonoscopy confirmed Stage IV colorectal…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Shyreece’s Patient Story
Shyreece Pompey was a lifelong teacher when she was suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. The diagnosis forced her to learn quickly that cancer care was not something she could move through silently. She came to believe that speaking up changed the…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Cindi’s Survivor Story
Cindi Terwoord was 62 when she acted quickly on new blood in her stool and was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in September 2019. A local oncologist recommended starting chemotherapy immediately, but Cindi waited a few days for her Cleveland Clinic…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Shyreece’s Patient Story
Shyreece’s fourth video focuses on the lessons she learned as a Black woman living with Stage IV lung cancer and on the advocacy that grew from her experience. She described a frightening beginning: within about 2 weeks, she went from symptoms and hospital…
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