What happened, in summary

Tina Powell shared her experience as a Stage IV lung cancer patient on her 3-year cancerversary. The story focuses on scan anxiety, but it also gives key details about her current care. As of January 2026, she was being treated on a clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The trial required scans every 6 weeks: CT chest, CT pelvis, and brain MRI, all with contrast. Tina described how scan results can appear in a patient portal before the doctor has explained them, and how difficult it can be to see possible progression alone. She had already lived through that experience. A scan showed that her prior targeted therapy was no longer working, which was terrifying at the time, but it also pushed her to make a major change in her medical care, medical team, and treatment location. Her lung cancer biomarker, prior targeted therapy, clinical trial drug, and metastatic sites were not named. Tina’s message is that scan anxiety is not a personal failure; it is a natural response to living with cancer between scans. As of January 2026, she was living with Stage IV lung cancer while receiving clinical-trial care.