Stage IV HER2-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Glenna's Survivor Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Subtype
- Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- Biomarkers
- HER2 mutation confirmed by blood and tissue biopsy biomarker testing
- Sex
- Female
- Treatment
- chemotherapy, targeted therapy and surveillance
- Outcome
- Cancer-Free / NED
Treatment course, step by step
- Cough began in December 2022 and worsened by March
- ER visit in late June for trouble breathing found a 9 cm lung mass and Stage IV NSCLC
- First-line chemotherapy did not work
- Blood and tissue biomarker testing found a HER2 mutation
- Enhertu started in September 2023 and continued
- Later reported no evidence of disease.
What happened, in summary
Glenna’s lung cancer story began in December 2022 with a nagging cough. She was not especially worried at first because she already had a silent reflux diagnosis, but by March the cough had worsened. Medication changes and a reflux referral did not solve the problem. After an Alaskan cruise, she became very sick and developed severe shoulder-blade pain. In late June, she told her husband she needed to go to the emergency room because she could not breathe. That visit revealed a 9 cm mass in her lung, and she was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. Glenna was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. Her first-line chemotherapy did not work. Biomarker testing from both blood and tissue biopsy then identified a HER2 mutation. In September 2023, she started Enhertu, a treatment targeted to that finding, and she continued on it. Her status was later described as officially NED, meaning no evidence of disease. Glenna and her husband continued traveling during treatment, supported by family, her faith, and her medical team.
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.