What happened, in summary

By mid-February 2015, this patient had been taking Erlotinib, also known as Tarceva, for about 1.5 months for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. He understood Tarceva as a targeted therapy for cancers with an EGFR mutation and hoped he would be among the patients whose tumor growth could be controlled by it. Apart from treatment side effects, he described having little cough, fatigue, or other lung-cancer symptoms at that moment. The next major checkpoint was a CT scan scheduled for March 2, which would show more clearly how well the treatment was working. He was also already thinking ahead. He had learned that after around a year, cancer cells can develop resistance to erlotinib, including the T790M mutation. He described AZD9291, then being studied in the AURA trial, as a promising future option for patients whose cancer worsened after EGFR-blocking drugs. As of February 2015, however, his own story was still at the early response-assessment stage: on Tarceva, waiting for imaging, and trying to understand possible next options. He was learning to live in 2 timelines: the present treatment assessment and the possibility of resistance later on. Both mattered to his sense of control.