What happened, in summary

Phil was an active 60-year-old looking toward retirement when a cough would not go away. At first, doctors treated it like a sinus infection or pneumonia. A CT scan was read as not cancer, and the start of COVID delayed further evaluation. After an 8-month wait, a lung biopsy found cancer cells. One doctor told him he would need chemotherapy, radiation, and lung removal, then advised him to get his affairs in order. Phil sought a second opinion at UT Southwestern. There, he learned the disease was Stage IV: it had reached lymph nodes near his heart and was also in his other lung, so surgery and radiation could not remove it. His oncologist started chemotherapy to slow the cancer while genetic testing was done. After 2 rounds, testing found a ROS1 mutation. Phil switched to an oral targeted therapy taken twice a day. The drug was not curative, but it stopped the cancer for about 2 years. When the cancer progressed, he had radiation. His next option was a clinical trial at Mass General, chosen because its side-effect profile better fit his active life. Trial visits eventually stretched to every 3 months. As of February 2026, Phil was 5 years into life with Stage IV ROS1-positive lung cancer, still on the clinical-trial drug and planning future trips with his wife.