Stage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Gerri's Patient Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Subtype
- Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- Biomarkers
- EGFR-positive / EGFR-mutated
- Sex
- Female
- Spread to
- Not reported
- Treatment
- surgery and targeted therapy
- Outcome
- Living With Cancer
Treatment course, step by step
- Chest X-ray and CT led to bronchoscopy
- Lung wedge resection was performed
- About 2 weeks later, pathology showed Stage IV EGFR-positive NSCLC
- Targeted therapy was started, but the drug name is not reported
- Five weeks after starting targeted therapy, she hiked 90 miles in Patagonia.
What happened, in summary
Gerri first noticed a slight cough that would not go away and a drop in stamina on the StairMaster. Before a planned hiking trip to Patagonia, she saw her doctor to check whether she was well enough for travel vaccinations. Her lungs sounded clear, but the doctor still ordered a chest X-ray, followed the next day by a CT scan. The scan was concerning enough that a pulmonologist cleared her schedule and performed a bronchoscopy. A week later, Gerri had a lung wedge resection. Two weeks after surgery, she learned she had Stage IV EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The diagnosis was shocking because she was an active tennis professional, hiker, kayaker, skier, wife, mother, and grandmother with no obvious risk factors. Gerri chose to keep living as fully as possible. She started targeted therapy, though the drug name is not reported, and 5 weeks later she hiked 90 miles in Patagonia. With support from her husband, oncologist, family, social worker, and lung cancer community, she continued hiking in places such as the Tetons, Utah national parks, New Zealand, and Iceland. Her story is best framed as living actively with Stage IV EGFR-positive lung cancer, not as remission or cure.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by Lung Cancer Research Foundation. 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.