Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer: 40 Real Stories
40 stories match lung cancer and immunotherapy. 29 of them mention chemotherapy.
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 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 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 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 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…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer Patient Story
This story was shared by the sister of a woman with aggressive lung cancer and bone metastases. The cancer involved the skull and spine and had caused a clavicle fracture. Around the same time, doctors also found a localized 4 cm breast cancer. She received…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Sandra’s Patient Story
Sandra was 42 and living in Colombes when lung cancer entered her life shortly after a stroke. She had the stroke at the beginning of 2018 and was officially diagnosed with lung cancer on April 16, 2018. She nicknamed the cancer “baby dragon,” choosing a name…
Read this storyStage IV Small Cell Lung Cancer: Sylvane’s Patient Story
Sylvane was 71 when a persistent dry cough in May 2020 led to a new cancer diagnosis. She had survived breast cancer 27 years earlier, in 1993, after chemotherapy, radiation, removal of the left breast, and removal of the lymph-node chain. This time, COVID…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Usha’s Patient Story
Usha Jain, a retired UC Berkeley professor, was diagnosed in July 2018 with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer despite having no smoking history. Her daughter, Amita Jain, was both a physician and caregiver, yet still found the lung cancer decision-making…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Amy’s Patient Story
Amy was diagnosed with Stage IV squamous non-small cell lung cancer on her birthday. About 2 weeks after a flu shot, a lymph node appeared in her neck. At first, she thought it might be a vaccine reaction or infection, but after another 2 weeks she saw her…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Rhonda’s Patient Story
Rhonda Martin was diagnosed in March 2018 with Stage IV non-small cell adenocarcinoma lung cancer. At diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to her brain, spine, hip bone, and lymph nodes. Her first treatment was whole brain radiation. While biopsy results…
Read this storyStage III Lung Adenocarcinoma: Becky’s Survivor Story
Becky Manning was a 47-year-old active working mother who had never smoked when months of chest pain, cough and abnormal imaging finally led to a lung cancer diagnosis. Her symptoms were first treated as pneumonia, then other causes were considered, but she…
Read this storyStage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Heidi’s Survivor Story
Heidi was 55, a fitness trainer, and a lifelong health enthusiast when lung cancer was found by accident. In October 2018, she had a CT scan during evaluation of a mildly suspicious ovarian cyst. The ovary was benign, but the chest CT showed a lung mass and…
Read this storyStage II KRAS Lung Adenocarcinoma: Roy’s Survivor Story
Roy was a 50-year-old commercial airline pilot and Air Force veteran when he noticed a subtle rattle in his chest while lying down at night. An early X-ray was interpreted as something like pneumonia, and because he was a nonsmoker with no family history of…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Clara’s Patient Story
Clara was living with Stage IV lung cancer when a difficult stretch of treatment nearly made her stop. She had already completed 7 rounds of chemotherapy and 10 rounds of radiation. During the summer, she also received immunotherapy, and August scans brought…
Read this storyStage IV Small Cell Lung Cancer: Jennifer’s Survivor Story
Jennifer Robertson was 46 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV small cell lung cancer in fall 2024. The diagnosis came after severe hip pain revealed a broken hip bone, and a bone marrow biopsy showed the fracture was caused by cancer. PET imaging found a…
Read this storyKRAS Lung Cancer: Wyatt’s Patient Story
Wyatt was in his 30s and already had a complex medical history when lung cancer entered his life unexpectedly. He had no obvious lung cancer symptoms and was shocked when cancer was found after dealing with issues related to a long-standing shunt. His doctor…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Clara’s Patient Story
Clara was 24 when symptoms that seemed unrelated slowly pointed to something serious. Hip and back pain were first explained as an L5-S1 herniated disc from running, but the pain around that area later made more sense after doctors found cancer had spread to…
Read this storyStage IV Small Cell Lung Cancer: Kristen’s Patient Story
Kristen was an active nurse in her 40s who loved tennis when shortness of breath and right-sided pain led to a small cell lung cancer diagnosis in January 2025. Because she had a long-standing heart condition and a pacemaker, she first wondered whether the…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Alisa’s Patient Story
Alisa Secaida was 35 when cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, chest tightness and shoulder pain were dismissed as asthma or long COVID. She paid for her own CT scan, which showed a mass in the upper left lung, and later biopsy confirmed Stage IVB non-small…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Eugenia’s Patient Story
Eugenia Horan was 46 when she was diagnosed with poorly differentiated non-small cell lung cancer. Her symptoms began after what seemed like a cold or flu in late 2018, followed by chest tightness, coughing blood, weight loss, and a racing pulse. Her concerns…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Natalie’s Patient Story
Natalie Brown was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in June 2020 after about 6 months of testing, including X-rays, CT scans, PET scans and several biopsies. She had been dismissed at times because of her age and lack of smoking history. During one biopsy…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Samantha’s Patient Story
Samantha was an active hiker and outdoor adventurer when a mild cough and chest pressure after a trip to India led to a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. She had never thought lung cancer was likely because she was a nonsmoker and very health-conscious. At…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Ashley’s Survivor Story
Ashley Vasallo was 36 when she shared her story, 2 years after being diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. Before diagnosis, she had trouble swallowing, shortness of breath, stabbing chest pain, fatigue, vomiting, full-body swelling, clubbed…
Read this story