Stage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Sydney's Patient Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Biomarkers
- ALK-rearranged
- Sex
- Female
- Spread to
- brain
- Treatment
- targeted therapy
- Outcome
- Living With Cancer
Treatment course, step by step
- ALK biomarker testing led to targeted therapy rather than surgery or chemotherapy
- First targeted therapy controlled the cancer for about 5.5 years
- Routine MRI in September 2022 found 3 brain metastases
- Treatment was switched to another targeted therapy
- She had been taking the newer targeted therapy for about 2 years by the February 2025 video.
What happened, in summary
Sydney Barned was 33 and completing her internal medicine residency when she was diagnosed with Stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer in 2017. She had always been active, including ballet, track, swimming, and 5K runs, so the first sign was subtle but frightening: her breathing no longer matched her fitness. While working in Jamaica, she was treated for presumed pneumonia after a chest X-ray. After antibiotics, she began coughing and coughed up blood. A pulmonologist suggested hyperactive airway disease, but after moving for residency, persistent wheezing led to more testing.
Asthma testing was negative. A repeat chest X-ray showed a persistent abnormality on the left side, and a CT scan found a mass compressing her airway. Bronchoscopy and biopsy confirmed Stage IV lung cancer, and biomarker testing showed ALK-positive disease. That result changed the treatment plan: instead of surgery or chemotherapy, she started targeted therapy.
Her first targeted therapy controlled the cancer for about 5.5 years. In September 2022, a routine MRI found 3 brain metastases, and her team switched her to another targeted therapy. As of February 2025, Sydney was still working full-time as a hospitalist and using her experience to advocate for lung cancer awareness and less stigma.
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.