Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer: 140 Real Stories
140 stories match lung cancer and targeted therapy. 49 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Suzanne’s Patient Story
Suzanne was a regular runner who usually covered 5 to 7 miles a day, so feeling sluggish during a morning run in October 2019 seemed like bronchitis at first. She saw her doctor before an upcoming race, and a chest X-ray quickly led to more scans. Within…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Duncan’s Patient Story
Duncan Edmonstone was 55 when a seizure led to a sudden Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. He had not had the symptoms people often associate with lung cancer, such as a persistent cough or chest pain. After scans and tests, doctors found advanced lung cancer…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Linnea’s Patient Story
Linnea Olson was 45 when she was first diagnosed with lung cancer. Her initial diagnosis was Stage I, and she had surgery that removed most of her left lung, followed by chemotherapy. The first scan after chemotherapy showed something back in her lungs…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Jay’s Survivor Story
Jay Petri was diagnosed in 2008 and received clearer answers in fall 2009, when a good biopsy showed lung cancer with an ALK mutation. He understood that Stage IV lung cancer was probably terminal, and the diagnosis was followed by major personal loss when he…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Duane’s Patient Story
Duane Steiner was 50 when 2 nighttime fainting spells led to an emergency-room visit and a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis in 2019. He had never smoked, so lung cancer was not something he expected. Molecular and genomic testing on the tumor later showed…
Read this storyStage III ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Michelle’s Patient Story
Michelle Bos-Lun, a Vermont state representative, was hospitalized after returning from Nepal with what turned out to be scrub typhus. During that workup, doctors ordered a chest X-ray and saw something they could not explain. About 3 weeks of additional…
Read this storyEGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Donna’s Patient Story
Donna Thompson was 45 when an emergency-room visit for high blood sugar unexpectedly revealed a lung mass. She had no smoking history, so lung cancer seemed unlikely to everyone around her, but scans and biopsy confirmed Stage II non-small cell lung cancer…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Lorie’s Patient Story
Lorie Young was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in March 2026 after a 1.2-inch tumor in the lower left lung was found by chance during a routine physical. A robotic bronchoscopy biopsy and other tests confirmed the diagnosis. Because the cancer had…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Jeff’s Patient Story
Jeff Meckstroth had a cough that lingered for several months before scans and biopsies led to a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis in 2015. He and his wife, Rhonda, were initially told that he might have only months to live. Extra tissue collected for biomarker…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Anne’s Patient Story
Anne spent 35 years as a nurse and had already cared for her father through advanced lung cancer when she began having back pain in 2019. She initially blamed the pain on triathlon training and adjusted her exercise, but it kept worsening. Over the next 8…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Rosee’s Patient Story
Rosee’s symptoms began in September 2022 with severe dizziness, loss of balance, and a spinning sensation. Over the next 2 years, she developed hearing loss, persistent vertigo, migraines, and numbness in one hand. The symptoms were attributed to Ménière’s…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Shannon’s Survivor Story
Shannon was 35 when a cough lingered for about 1.5 months, followed by severe neck pain that did not respond to repeated muscle relaxers. The pain reached 7 or 8 out of 10, limited her ability to turn her head or pick up her children, and continued through…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Nancee’s Patient Story
Nancee Pronsati was an active runner when a persistent cough kept being treated as bronchitis with antibiotics or inhalers. She had believed lung cancer mostly affected smokers, so it was not on her radar. During a race in Nashville, she coughed for 13 miles…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Jill’s Patient Story
Jill already knew the fear of lung cancer before her own diagnosis. Her father died at 41, only 3 months after being diagnosed, and her mother died at 54, 6 months after her diagnosis. Because of that family history, Jill had periodic CT scans even though she…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Jake’s Patient Story
Jake was 15 when severe migraines began in late 2012. For about 25 days, he hid the pain, took large amounts of Advil, and kept playing sports until his mother pushed for an MRI. The scan showed a golf-ball-sized tumor in his cerebellum. After brain surgery…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Kartik’s Patient Story
Kartik was 28 and a third-year internal medicine resident when he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Molecular testing identified an EML4/ALK mutation, and he entered a targeted clinical trial. That treatment allowed him to continue working in medicine…
Read this storyStage II Lung Cancer: Michelle’s Patient Story
Michelle’s lung cancer was found while doctors were investigating a completely different problem. After a fall, she developed persistent pain that moved into her jaw, head, and neck and caused migraine-like symptoms. Months of physical therapy, pain…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Kelsey’s Patient Story
Kelsey was 36, a mother of 4, and working as a SoulCycle manager when severe back pain began changing her life. At first, she blamed work, commuting, aging, or a pulled muscle. Then she collapsed while coaching baseball and later had to crawl to the bathroom…
Read this storyStage II EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Daniel’s Patient Story
Daniel West had no symptoms before a routine heart scan in October 2022 showed 2 nodules in his right lung. A bronchoscopy biopsy confirmed early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Daniel, who had quit smoking in 2006, sought a second opinion at UT MD Anderson…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Megan’s Survivor Story
Megan was 33, active, a never-smoker, and raising 2 young children when chest pain began. Urgent care and ER visits first led to explanations such as a pulled muscle or anxiety. Then she developed shortness of breath on walks, arm pain, and visible veins in…
Read this storyStage III EGFR Lung Cancer: Roxanne’s Patient Story
Roxanne was 43, a single mother, and a special needs teacher when lung cancer was found almost by accident. She had gone to her gynecologist for abdominal pain that felt like an ovarian cyst. A CT scan did show a cyst, but it also caught part of her right…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Maggie’s Patient Story
Maggie was 60 in 2021 and expected the year to be one of the best of her life. Instead, unusual symptoms led to a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. She first had an ocular migraine, then leg pain that turned out to be a partial blood clot. A CT scan showed…
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 ROS1 Lung Cancer: Phil’s Patient Story
Phil was an active 60-year-old looking toward retirement when a cough would not go away. At first, doctors treated it like a sinus infection or pneumonia. A CT scan was read as not cancer, and the start of COVID delayed further evaluation. After an 8-month…
Read this story