Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer: 140 Real Stories
140 stories match lung cancer and targeted therapy. 49 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Tiffany’s Patient Story
Tiffany was a labor and delivery nurse, Pilates instructor, wife, and mother of twins when shortness of breath and right-sided pain led to a long diagnostic workup during the pandemic. A bronchoscopy was followed by a collapsed lung and hospital stay. Imaging…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Dan’s Patient Story
Dan was a young father with 2 daughters when symptoms that seemed like a stubborn cold began in November 2018. The cold did not go away. Instead, he developed shortness of breath, chest tightness, and lost his voice. Steroids and inhalers did not help, and no…
Read this storyStage 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 RET Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Sara’s Patient Story
Sara Whitlock was 47 when she was diagnosed in 2010 with Stage IV lung cancer and told her chance of surviving 5 years was about 3%. She feared she would not see her daughters grow up. Her lung cancer was non-small cell lung cancer caused by a RET fusion, a…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: James’s Patient Story
James “Rocky” Lagno developed a persistent dry cough around Thanksgiving 2010. As his breathing worsened and he began coughing up blood, lung cancer became a concern. He was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and went to Boston for intravenous…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Ginger’s Patient Story
Ginger Tam sought care for a persistent cough and learned that she had Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. The diagnosis was devastating for the single mother, whose daughter was 8 at the time. She sought a second opinion at a research hospital and became…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Adenocarcinoma: Amanda’s Survivor Story
At 38, a healthy and active mother of two was diagnosed with Stage IV lung adenocarcinoma in September 2016. The first warning signs were chest pressure and unusual shortness of breath while jogging. An initial hospital visit left uncertainty about the cause…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Molly’s Patient Story
Molly Golbon was 39, a working mother and wife, when she learned that what seemed like bronchitis or pneumonia was actually Stage IV lung cancer. The diagnosis was especially shocking because she had never smoked and did not fit the stereotype she associated…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patient Story
At age 50, this patient was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer on August 5, 2015, only about 6 weeks after a persistent cough began. She had never smoked and had worked as a radiation therapist for more than 20 years, so she pushed for further…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer Patient Story
About 3 years after learning he had lung cancer, this Spanish blogger wrote a farewell post from a much harder point in the illness. Recent months had brought bone metastases, pneumonia, severe pain, feverish evenings, night sweats, low-oxygen episodes, and…
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