Stage IV Lung Cancer: Mila's Patient Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Sex
- Female
- Spread to
- Neck lymph nodes; skull; iliac bone
- Treatment
- surgery, chemotherapy, cryotherapy, interventional therapy and supportive care
- Outcome
- Responding Well
Treatment course, step by step
- Initially misdiagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis, then CT scan and biopsy confirmed lung cancer
- In the Philippines, treatment included surgery and IV chemotherapy
- After recurrence or progression, stronger chemotherapy drugs were tried without response
- In March 2016, Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou used cryotherapy followed by interventional therapy
- Liver and kidney protection support was also given
- After the first treatment, lung tumors were gone and the tumor marker decreased
- After 4 visits, lung tumors had disappeared and the tumor marker was normal.
What happened, in summary
Mila Gardon Labor, a 58-year-old woman from the Philippines, was first found to have a lung lump during a yearly health exam. It was initially misdiagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis, and she took tuberculosis treatment for 4 months before CT scan and biopsy confirmed lung cancer. She described the cancer moving quickly: within a few months, it went from Stage I to Stage III, and the tumor grew from 1 cm to 11 cm. Mila had surgery and intravenous chemotherapy in the Philippines, but the treatment did not control the disease. After treatment, the cancer returned and became more serious. Stronger chemotherapy drugs were tried, but they also did not work. In February 2016, testing showed more tumors and spread to the neck lymph nodes, skull, and iliac bone, making this a Stage IV metastatic lung cancer story. In March 2016, Mila went to Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou. Her care plan included cryotherapy first, then interventional therapy, along with treatment to protect her liver and kidneys. After the first treatment, the lung tumors were gone and her tumor marker decreased. After 4 hospital visits, her lung tumors had disappeared, her tumor marker was normal, and her condition had improved significantly.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou (Lung). 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.