What happened, in summary

Donna Fernandez was 59 and active with her dogs when unexplained weight gain led her to a primary care visit. Her doctor felt a knot near her collarbone and arranged imaging. A PET scan and biopsy ultimately showed Stage IV nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. The diagnosis was especially difficult because Donna’s father had died of lung cancer at age 49.

Donna quickly started chemotherapy. The first week of each cycle made her extremely sick, followed by gradual recovery before the next cycle. When her body could no longer tolerate the regimen, she moved to an unnamed maintenance therapy. After about 8 weeks, she stopped that treatment because she was still very ill, and the tumors began growing again.

Faced with another chemotherapy option or a clinical trial, Donna chose the trial. She enrolled in a Phase III study of nivolumab. Compared with chemotherapy, the immunotherapy was much easier for her to tolerate, although her thyroid stopped working and required daily medication. The tumors did not disappear, but they stopped growing. Donna continued treatment while running agility with her dogs several days a week and living much as she had before her diagnosis.