Lung Cancer: 296 Real Stories
296 stories match lung cancer. 140 of them mention targeted therapy.
Stage 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 storyEGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Karen’s Patient Story
Karen Knetter learned she had non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma with an EGFR mutation during the COVID-19 lockdown period. While she was in the hospital, her oncologist’s encouragement helped her feel that she had a full team behind her. Karen described that…
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 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…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Shyreece’s Patient Story
Shyreece Pompey’s Stage IV lung cancer care changed when biomarker testing opened a different treatment path. She had first been placed on a chemotherapy cocktail. Later, testing showed that a targeted therapy pill was an option, though the mutation and drug…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Shyreece’s Patient Story
Shyreece Pompey had been teaching for 17 years when her first lung cancer symptoms appeared during a school day. While dancing with students during a brain break, her arms suddenly felt heavy, she became deeply fatigued, felt a throb or skipped beat in her…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Abby’s Survivor Story
Abby Kanarek was 60 when a backache led to an X-ray that showed a lung mass. Soon after, temporary leg numbness and loss of movement on the left side of her body sent her to emergency care, where scans found the lung mass plus a large brain tumor and 5…
Read this storyStage I Lung Cancer: Dave’s Survivor Story
Dave Bjork’s lung cancer was found in the late 1990s, when his doctor called and told him a tumor had been found. Even though the cancer was Stage I and localized, the diagnosis immediately made him think about dying, life insurance, his wife, and his…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Anne’s Patient Story
Anne LaPorte spent decades as a nurse and had already lived through lung cancer as a caregiver. Her father was diagnosed with very advanced lung cancer in 2008 and died after moving to hospice. In 2017, her daughter was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin…
Read this storyStage I Lung Cancer: Bonnie’s Survivor Story
Bonnie Ulrich loved family, fun, and staying active, including weightlifting. When she developed shooting pain down her arm, she first thought it was from physical strain. Because she had a smoking history, her doctor routinely checked chest X-rays. This…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Jeff’s Patient Story
Rhonda and Jeff Meckstroth met while working at a fire station in rural Ohio and built a life together on a farm. During harvest season in 2015, Jeff developed a persistent dry cough. He was soon diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and was told he might have…
Read this storyStage III Lung Cancer: Heidi’s Patient Story
This White Ribbon Project segment focuses mainly on Pierre Onda as a caregiver after his wife and high school sweetheart, Heidi Nafman-Onda, was diagnosed with Stage IIIA primary lung cancer at age 55. Pierre had been a primary care physician, but that did…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Keasha’s Patient Story
Keasha Draft was 37, strong, vibrant, and a never-smoker when Stage IV lung cancer suddenly changed her and Chris Draft’s life. Chris was known to many people from his NFL career, but this story centers on Keasha and the advocacy that grew from her illness…
Read this storyStage III Lung Adenocarcinoma: Heidi’s Patient Story
Heidi Nafman-Onda was 55 when a phone call changed her life. She was told she had Stage IIIA adenocarcinoma of the lung, that her prognosis was not good, and that she should get her affairs in order. Her husband, Pierre, was with her and began to cry, which…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Steve’s Patient Story
Steve Castellaw was 72 when a lump on the side of his head led to an MRI, surgery, and biopsy. The next day, he learned he had Stage IV lung cancer. The tumor was in his left lung and had spread to his right pelvis, the L1 and L2 vertebrae in his spine, and…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Ashley’s Patient Story
Ashley’s later lung cancer segment focuses on living with an incurable but treatable disease. By this point, she had already gone through genomic testing and had chosen care at a larger cancer center about 90 miles away. Her cancer was EGFR-positive non-small…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Ashley’s Patient Story
Ashley’s lung cancer treatment changed because genomic testing found an EGFR-positive cancer with the T790M marker. This part of her story focuses on how she was able to start osimertinib, also called Tagrisso, soon after it became FDA-approved for her cancer…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Ashley’s Patient Story
Ashley was 36 when an unrelated gynecologic infection led to the discovery of lung cancer. She was admitted for a Bartholin gland infection, and an abdominal CT scan incidentally captured the lower part of her lungs. Small lung nodules were seen. At first…
Read this storyNon-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Susan’s Survivor Story
Susan Taylor was 71 when complications from a double knee replacement unexpectedly led to an early lung cancer diagnosis. After the knee surgery, she developed blood clots in both legs and lungs. A later chest X-ray found a mass in her left lung, which Susan…
Read this storyStage I EGFR Lung Adenocarcinoma: Ashley’s Patient Story
Ashley Stringer was 34 when shortness of breath on the treadmill led to a lung cancer diagnosis. An X-ray showed a suspicious spot on her left lung, and biopsy confirmed Stage IA adenocarcinoma. Tumor testing showed the cancer was EGFR-positive. Because only…
Read this storyNon-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Rachel’s Survivor Story
Rachel Chua Bradley was 50 when she was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and treated near home in northern Virginia. A few years later, the cancer came back. Rachel, an ICU nurse, wanted more information and a plan she trusted, so she went to MD…
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