Stage IV ALK Lung Adenocarcinoma: Shirley's Patient Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Subtype
- Adenocarcinoma
- Biomarkers
- ALK-rearranged
- Sex
- Female
- Spread to
- mediastinum, pleura
- Treatment
- surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy, local therapy and a clinical trial
- Outcome
- Living With Cancer
Treatment course, step by step
- After 2 nondiagnostic bronchoscopies, wedge resection/biopsy was done
- Received 3 chemotherapy cycles for a large chest mass, with chest radiation starting during cycle 2
- ALK mutation was found before planned cycle 4/immunotherapy, so treatment changed to oral ALK-targeted pills from August 2021
- Bleeding in 2023 was treated with cautery procedures
- Local progression was treated with pulsed-field ablation
- Phase 2 ALK clinical trial started July 29, 2024 with 1 daily pill, and scans were stable by cycle 5.
What happened, in summary
Shirley was 34 when a cough and severe back pain were first treated as possible long COVID or pneumonia. Two bronchoscopies did not give answers. A wedge resection was then done to obtain tissue, and pathology showed adenocarcinoma. PET and MRI scans did not show cancer elsewhere in the body, but the disease involved the right lung, mediastinum, and pleura, and she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.
The mass was about 8 cm and was pressing on the vena cava and esophagus, so treatment started before all testing was complete. Shirley had 3 cycles of chemotherapy and began chest radiation during the second cycle. Before a planned fourth cycle and immunotherapy, pathology found an ALK mutation. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy were stopped, and she started oral ALK-targeted pills in August 2021.
Those pills controlled most disease for almost 3 years. In 2023, she began coughing blood from a smaller progressing tumor and needed cautery procedures, followed by pulsed-field ablation. In 2024, the larger mass started progressing, and a biopsy did not yield useful results. Shirley joined a phase 2 ALK clinical trial on July 29, 2024. As of December 2024, she was taking 1 pill daily, had minimal side effects, and scans showed stable disease.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by The Patient Story. Read the original in full
These are lay summaries of published cancer stories, for information only. No two cancers behave the same way, and nothing here predicts your own diagnosis or replaces advice from your oncology team.