What happened, in summary

Michelle Vacca’s lung cancer was found by accident in March 2017, when she went to the emergency room for an unrelated problem and chest scans showed a spot on her lung. She had never smoked and had no symptoms. Because the non-small cell lung cancer was caught early, surgery was her first treatment and kept the disease controlled for 3 years. When the cancer returned, genetic testing showed an EGFR mutation. Michelle started Tagrisso, a once-daily EGFR-targeted pill, and stayed on it for about 1.5 years. Then the cancer changed again. She tried another medication for exactly 1 year, but side effects became too hard to tolerate. With her previous oncologist running out of good options, Michelle asked for a referral to City of Hope. The study she had first heard about was not right for her, but Danny Nguyen had another clinical trial ready. Within weeks, she started an investigational kinase inhibitor for NSCLC patients with the same rare mutation. Her first scans showed fewer cancer cells, and her disease stayed stable after that. As of November 2025, Michelle was approaching her third year on the study, with appointments spaced every 6 weeks. She still actively had cancer, but treatment was keeping her healthy and able to volunteer, travel and advocate for clinical trials.