Stage IV RET Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Sara's Patient Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage IV
- Subtype
- Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- Biomarkers
- RET fusion-positive NSCLC
- Sex
- Female
- Spread to
- Brain; abdomen; bowel
- Treatment
- chemotherapy, radiation, maintenance therapy, targeted therapy and a clinical trial
- Outcome
- Care Ongoing
Treatment course, step by step
- Stage IV lung cancer diagnosed in 2010 at age 47
- Initial chemotherapy and radiation worked at first
- From 2010 to about 2015, chemotherapy, radiation, and maintenance drugs caused difficult side effects and were stopped when too toxic
- Cancer came back over time and involved lungs, brain, abdomen, and bowel
- In 2017, bowel involvement nearly led to major intestine surgery
- Testing found RET fusion-positive NSCLC, so she joined a selpercatinib/LOXO-292 clinical trial
- LOXO-292 taken as pills, with monthly Cleveland Clinic visits for drug supply and exams
- No signs of cancer were reported.
What happened, in summary
Sara Whitlock was 47 when she was diagnosed in 2010 with Stage IV lung cancer and told her chance of surviving 5 years was about 3%. She feared she would not see her daughters grow up. Her lung cancer was non-small cell lung cancer caused by a RET fusion, a rare genetic change that can make the cancer grow quickly and spread. Over time, Sara had cancerous tumors in the lungs, brain, abdomen and bowel. She first responded to conventional chemotherapy and radiation, but from 2010 to about 2015 the treatments and maintenance drugs caused hair loss, nausea and chemotherapy-related fatigue. She stayed on drugs as long as she could tolerate them, then stopped when toxicity became too much; the cancer would return within about a year. In 2017, bowel involvement became serious enough that she was scheduled for surgery to remove most of her intestine. Instead, she contacted Cleveland Clinic and learned she was eligible for a clinical trial of selpercatinib, also called LOXO-292. The drug was taken by mouth and caused far fewer side effects than earlier treatment. As of November 2019, Sara showed no signs of cancer, traveled monthly to Cleveland Clinic for medication and exams, and was living to see milestones she once thought she would miss.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by Cleveland Clinic. 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.