What happened, in summary

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, and her sister and niece urged her to see a doctor. A different general practitioner ordered a chest X-ray. A few days later, while Nancee was at an airport, the doctor called in tears and said both lungs were filled with nodules and the disease was clearly metastatic. Nancee’s first concern was how to prepare her adult sons if something happened to her. She was treated at a cancer center that did not rush into immunotherapy or chemotherapy before molecular testing. The first test did not identify a biomarker, but a second biopsy came back ALK positive. Nancee learned that ALK fusions or rearrangements can drive cancer growth and that targeted pills can shut down those signals. She started ALK-targeted therapy, and it began working within days. Later, she experienced brain progression, a known risk in ALK-positive lung cancer, especially with older drugs that did not protect the brain well. As of May 2026, Nancee had lived about 10 years with metastatic ALK-positive lung cancer and continued to focus on quality of life.