Lung Cancer: 296 Real Stories
296 stories match lung cancer. 140 of them mention targeted therapy.
Stage IV Lung Cancer: Joanne’s Patient Story
Joanne Sabol was 65 when a lump in her neck led to imaging and a biopsy in July 2005. She was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and was initially told that palliative care was her only option. Joanne sought a second opinion at Memorial Sloan Kettering…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Leslie’s Patient Story
Leslie was active and teaching fitness classes when a persistent cough and worsening shortness of breath began to interfere with daily life. After repeated visits and treatments that did not help, swollen lymph nodes and increasing breathing difficulty led…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Felipe’s Patient Story
Felipe first noticed something was wrong while running a half marathon in 2019. A cough and unusual shortness of breath persisted despite treatment for chronic bronchitis and asthma. By 2021, after worsening symptoms and delays in care during the COVID-19…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer Patient Story
An anonymized 35-year-old was living with Stage IV lung cancer 6 years after the cancer had spread to the liver, brain and bone. The illness had required repeated treatment, and the patient was receiving a 10th line of therapy. The specific medicines and…
Read this storyStage III Lung Cancer Survivor Story
An anonymized 72-year-old man was 5 years beyond surgery for Stage III lung cancer. The operation left him with one lung, yet he was described as breathing normally and remaining able to walk. His lung cancer was in remission. The raw text did not identify…
Read this storyStage II KRAS Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Camila’s Patient Story
At 24, Camila Bermúdez García was preparing to apply to medical school when she coughed up about a spoonful of blood while volunteering at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic. An X-ray showed a lung abnormality, but she was repeatedly treated for pneumonia. Over nearly…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Michelle’s Patient Story
Michelle had been living with ALK-positive lung cancer since 2018 when she developed persistent headaches, vomiting, ear popping, and a whooshing sound in her head. Remembering another patient who had developed leptomeningeal disease, she pressed for an…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Lisa’s Patient Story
Lisa Bistline’s lung-cancer journey began with scans and biopsies, followed by the shock of hearing the diagnosis and asking her husband for confirmation that she had understood correctly. She then moved through multiple treatments as her care evolved. A…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Michael’s Patient Story
Michael O’Donnell is a Vietnam War veteran who receives his lung-cancer testing and treatment through the Dallas VA, with access to a lung-cancer specialist from UT Southwestern when needed. His cancer was Stage IV at diagnosis. He had smoked until two weeks…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Mary’s Patient Story
Mary Lynn Moser lived through 15 years of cancer, including 5 years with breast cancer and nearly 10 years with lung cancer. A radiologist noticed a lung spot while reading a mammogram, allowing the lung cancer to be detected at Stage III rather than after…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Marnie’s Patient Story
Marnie Clark first noticed that one leg felt unusual. The problem became impossible to dismiss when the leg became paralyzed. Early tests focused on the leg and found nothing, so Marnie and her husband paid for additional examinations rather than continue…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Xavier’s Patient Story
In spring 2022, Xavier Sanders was placed on Air Force reserve duty after repeatedly testing positive for COVID-19. Further evaluation found a spot in his lung, and a follow-up 3 months later showed that it had doubled in size. Biopsy confirmed cancer, and a…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Nate’s Patient Story
Nate and his partner met online and quickly began planning a future together. They imagined a new home, chose possible family names, and hoped to have children. Even before cancer entered their lives, pregnancy planning was medically complicated because of…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Randi’s Patient Story
Randi Young began smoking at 17 or 18 and stopped at age 31. On April 15, 1984, she decided to quit; the next day she went for a run and never smoked another cigarette. Within 1.5 months she completed her first 10K, ran her first marathon later that year, and…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Katie’s Survivor Story
Katie was 12 weeks pregnant with her second child when she was diagnosed with neuroendocrine lung cancer in 2023. Running was one of her favorite activities, and she asked what the diagnosis would mean for that part of her life. She was told that she would…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Sharon’s Patient Story
Sharon Schneider was diagnosed with a rare ALK-positive lung cancer in April 2017. She had previously completed 7 half marathons along with several 15K and 5K races, but cancer treatment and blood clots in her brain forced her to stop running. Later that…
Read this storySmall Cell Lung Cancer: Nina’s Patient Story
Nina was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer in early 2014. She began standard chemotherapy and radiation and continued through about 14 months of treatment. The treatments caused side effects, including hearing loss, and eventually stopped controlling the…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Rachael’s Patient Story
Rachael Malmberg was an Olympic athlete, an active-duty service member, and otherwise healthy when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Because she did not match the profile she expected, she began researching possible causes and learned about radon. Within 2…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Carla’s Patient Story
Carla lived with lung cancer that repeatedly developed resistance to treatment. For long periods, her symptoms were limited mainly to coughing and manageable fatigue. In January 2015, while taking third-line afatinib, she married Bud and moved to Manila to…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patient Story
In 2015, a close-knit family learned that their mother had Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer that had spread to her brain. She had been a deacon’s wife, a church piano player, a 30-year state employee, and the person who tirelessly cared for others. Her…
Read this storyStage III Lung Cancer Survivor Story
Carla’s father had previously survived Stage III lung cancer. During a later medical consultation, doctors found an early-stage prostate cancer. Biopsy confirmed that the prostate tumor was a separate primary cancer rather than spread from the lung. At the…
Read this storyStage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Robert’s Survivor Story
Robert Tumanic’s lung cancer was found through follow-up after a pulmonary embolism in 2015. A CT scan showed areas that needed monitoring, and 10 months later they were confirmed as multifocal Stage I non-small cell lung cancer. An oncologist recommended…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Jeff’s Patient Story
Jeff was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 34 after months of worsening back pain that sometimes became debilitating. Targeted therapy eased the physical burden of the disease and helped restore his mobility. Two and a half years later, he and his partner…
Read this storyStage III KRAS Lung Cancer: Bill’s Survivor Story
Bill Morris was diagnosed in 2021 with Stage IIIB KRAS G12D lung cancer after 9 months of misdiagnosis. His treatment included 10 rounds of chemotherapy, 30 rounds of radiation, and 10 months in an immunotherapy clinical trial. During the same period, his…
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