Stage 4: 492 Real Stories
492 stories match stage 4. 319 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Carol’s Survivor Story
Carol’s metastatic lobular breast cancer began in fall 2010, the year she retired from a 45-year nursing career and turned 65. While showering, she felt an itchy sensation deep in her left breast and found a long, hard tissue mass. Bilateral breast biopsies…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Lee’s Survivor Story
Lee Jones was 55 when a CT scan for what seemed like a prostate infection unexpectedly found 5 spots on his liver. A colonoscopy soon identified the primary tumor in his colon, making the diagnosis Stage IV colon cancer because it had already spread to the…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Marlene’s Patient Story
Marlene was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer before she turned 60. Her first symptoms were chest pain and a persistent dry cough. After diagnosis, she reduced her smoking and began eating healthier meals each day. The news brought emptiness, grief…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Rachael’s Patient Story
Rachael found a breast lump during a routine self-check and was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2021. She also noticed changes in the size and shape of the breast and irritation or dimpling of the skin. The diagnosis left her numb, resentful…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Stephanie’s Patient Story
Stephanie, a Frenchwoman living in New Zealand, found a lump in her right breast in late November 2021. Mammography, ultrasound and biopsy confirmed breast cancer. She was 49 years old. The disease was initially thought to be Stage I, but MRI showed spread to…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Amanda’s Patient Story
Amanda was 34 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in April 2021. Her family history included an uncle, aunt and grandfather with colon cancer. The diagnosis of colon adenocarcinoma came as a shock, especially because she had a young son and…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Harper’s Patient Story
Harper, 58, sought medical help after noticing a red patch on her breast. Testing at a hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand led to a diagnosis of Stage IV breast cancer. The news was overwhelming, especially because she had already lost her father and…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Oswald’s Patient Story
Oswald Peterson was diagnosed in January 2017 after sudden severe back pain, labored breathing, weakness, and weight loss. Urgent care first treated him as if he might have pneumonia or COPD, but his regular doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian quickly recognized…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Saila’s Patient Story
Saila Hanninen was 35 in 2016 and had recently completed her ninth marathon and first full Ironman when her health began to change. Slower training times, lower-back pain, a persistent cough, and increasing shortness of breath eventually led to testing. In…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Allison’s Patient Story
Allison Rebello was 36 when a mammogram in 2011 showed invasive ductal cancer in her right breast. Further testing also found cancer in the left breast. She underwent a right mastectomy with reconstruction and a left lumpectomy followed by 6 weeks of…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Pam’s Patient Story
Pam Benchley was 53, a triathlete, cyclist and fitness trainer, when she noticed inflamed skin on her left breast. A recent mammogram had not shown cancer, so she first thought the irritation came from a sports bra. A local doctor biopsied the area and found…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Scott’s Patient Story
Scott Sterling was 51 in 2018 when a sudden sharp pain in his lower right abdomen led him to the emergency room. After several tests, a pelvic scan found Stage IV colorectal cancer that had spread to his liver. He learned that the disease was not considered…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Doris’s Patient Story
Doris learned in 2017 that she had breast cancer. The cancer was described as aggressive, and after months passed before she reached the hospital, she was told it had advanced to Stage IV and had metastasized to her lungs. Her doctor gave her an estimated 6…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Kristine’s Patient Story
Kristine Bishop first noticed a slightly painful breast lump in 2008. It was a fibroadenoma, a noncancerous tumor, and it was removed. A year later, her mother pushed her to keep a follow-up mammogram appointment. That mammogram showed a tiny starburst-like…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Christine’s Survivor Story
Christine Hodgdon was 34, active, and training for a triathlon when she was diagnosed with aggressive metastatic breast cancer. The cancer was HER2-positive. She had no family history of breast cancer and described the diagnosis as a complete shock. Her…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Howard’s Patient Story
Howard Brown was 50 when a routine colonoscopy led to a diagnosis of colon cancer. At 24, he had survived non-Hodgkin lymphoma and then lived 26 years without evidence of that disease before the colon cancer was found. For colon cancer, surgeons removed 13…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Tomma’s Patient Story
Tomma Hargraves noticed a small bump on the left side of her neck in October 2006. A biopsy led to a diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer, and scans showed a tumor in the upper right lung with extensive lymph-node involvement. She was diagnosed with Stage…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Tomma’s Patient Story
Tomma Hargraves discovered a small lump on the left side of her neck in 2006. A biopsy showed non-small cell lung cancer, and scans found a tumor in her right lung with extensive lymph node involvement. Her initial diagnosis was Stage III lung cancer. Tomma…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Eva’s Patient Story
Eva Joseph’s breast cancer journey began in March 2002, when a mammogram found two areas in her left breast. She first had a lumpectomy, but cancer remained at the margins, so she underwent a mastectomy. Cancer was also found in the sentinel lymph node…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Kirby’s Patient Story
Kirby Lewis first felt a breast lump after months of coughing and was initially told that men do not get breast cancer. After transferring his care to a VA hospital, an open biopsy confirmed ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. He was…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA2 Breast Cancer: Lisa’s Patient Story
Lisa Quinn was 36 when she found a hard knot in her right breast after experiencing stabbing pain. Mammography, ultrasound, and biopsy confirmed breast cancer involving lymph nodes. MRI and PET imaging showed 7 tumors in the right breast and cancer in 5 bone…
Read this storyStage IV Gastric Cancer: Faye’s Patient Story
Faye Hood was 70 and training for a half-marathon in 2017 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV stomach cancer. She had noticed bloating and bowel changes but initially thought they were part of getting older. After deciding to seek care at MD Anderson, an…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Dan’s Patient Story
Dan DiNardo was 49 when he was diagnosed with advanced male breast cancer in 2015. He had first noticed a breast lump, but after a mammogram he was told to return if it changed. For nearly a year, the lump grew. Bleeding and skin changes finally pushed him to…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Natalia’s Patient Story
Natalia Padron’s breast cancer was found after she noticed that something looked different in her breasts and sought routine breast imaging. The report was highly suspicious, and she was referred to a surgeon. She had a family history of breast cancer through…
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