Clinical Trial: 133 Real Stories
133 stories match clinical trial. 95 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV MSI-High Colorectal Cancer: Cindy’s Patient Story
Cindy Mette noticed declining energy in early 2022, and a colonoscopy found a colon tumor that doctors removed. Less than a year later, the cancer returned and spread. In 2023, she was told she had Stage IV colorectal cancer and might have only months to…
Read this storyStage IV Gastric Cancer: Derek’s Patient Story
An emergency physician and Pain Medicine Fellow in upstate New York was diagnosed with Stage IV stomach cancer in July 2024. Treatment began locally, but he sought second opinions from several institutions before deciding to enroll in a clinical trial at UT…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Anne’s Patient Story
Anne spent 35 years as a nurse and had already cared for her father through advanced lung cancer when she began having back pain in 2019. She initially blamed the pain on triathlon training and adjusted her exercise, but it kept worsening. Over the next 8…
Read this storyStage IV MSI-High Colorectal Cancer: JJ’s Patient Story
JJ was 27 when months of abdominal pain, bowel problems, vomiting and rapid weight loss led to an emergency CT scan and colonoscopy. Surgery removed about 80% of his colon and 36 inches of small intestine. He needed a second operation during a 16-day hospital…
Read this storyStage II Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Lucy’s Survivor Story
Lucy found a breast lump at 23, months after learning that she carried a germline BRCA1 mutation. Several clinicians thought the area felt like fibrous tissue, but because of her inherited risk she continued with imaging and biopsy. Three days after her 24th…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Wendi’s Survivor Story
During a September bicycling trip, an unnamed patient felt a sudden stabbing pain in the right breast. A biopsy of the painful lump showed Stage II, high-grade, triple-positive breast cancer. The diagnosis was unexpected despite annual mammograms and a…
Read this storyStage IV Gastric Adenocarcinoma: Derek’s Survivor Story
Derek Cooney, an emergency physician, was 48 when difficulty eating and drinking led to testing and a diagnosis of diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma. A laparoscopy showed that the cancer had spread to his peritoneum, making it Stage IV. Derek began with 8 rounds…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Haley’s Survivor Story
Haley Pollack had recently returned from parental leave when extreme fatigue became impossible to ignore. She initially blamed postpartum exhaustion, work, and parenting, but doctors were concerned about anemia. Colonoscopy found what looked like a bleeding…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Jake’s Patient Story
Jake was 15 when severe migraines began in late 2012. For about 25 days, he hid the pain, took large amounts of Advil, and kept playing sports until his mother pushed for an MRI. The scan showed a golf-ball-sized tumor in his cerebellum. After brain surgery…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Jeffrey’s Survivor Story
Jeffrey had completed prostate cancer treatment in July 2022 and was already committed to routine screening when he went for a scheduled colonoscopy in August 2023. He felt well and expected a normal result, but the doctor found polyps and a significant mass…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Lung Cancer: Kartik’s Patient Story
Kartik was 28 and a third-year internal medicine resident when he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Molecular testing identified an EML4/ALK mutation, and he entered a targeted clinical trial. That treatment allowed him to continue working in medicine…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: David’s Patient Story
David spent months trying to get answers for worsening digestive symptoms, severe fatigue, ribbony stool, blood in his stool, and about 70 pounds of weight loss. His symptoms were repeatedly attributed to stress, depression, anxiety, medication effects, or…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer: Kelsey’s Patient Story
Kelsey was 36, a mother of 4, and working as a SoulCycle manager when severe back pain began changing her life. At first, she blamed work, commuting, aging, or a pulled muscle. Then she collapsed while coaching baseball and later had to crawl to the bathroom…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Joe’s Patient Story
Joe never had blood in his stool. His warning signs were fatigue, loss of appetite, feeling generally off, and then severe shoulder, back, stomach, and liver-area pain. Because he worked long hours in the restaurant industry, the fatigue was easy to explain…
Read this storyStage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Natalie’s Patient Story
Natalie was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer at 33. By the time her story reached the transplant stage, her cancer had progressed despite 2 clinical trials and 2 different chemotherapies. Her lung function had declined badly; she described…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Maggie’s Patient Story
Maggie was 60 in 2021 and expected the year to be one of the best of her life. Instead, unusual symptoms led to a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. She first had an ocular migraine, then leg pain that turned out to be a partial blood clot. A CT scan showed…
Read this storyStage IV ROS1 Lung Cancer: Phil’s Patient Story
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…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Cora’s Patient Story
Cora was preparing to start private practice as a therapist when colorectal cancer changed her life. Before diagnosis, fatigue was the first major clue. She was sleeping instead of eating, losing weight unintentionally, and repeatedly being evaluated for…
Read this storyStage II Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Chase’s Survivor Story
Chase Johnson was 36 when her dog, Cato, helped draw attention to a breast lump. In 2021, after Cato repeatedly acted anxious around her and pressed his snout against the side of her breast, Chase checked the area and found the lump that led to a Stage IIB…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Tina’s Patient Story
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…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Kina’s Survivor Story
Kina had lived with on-and-off IBS-like symptoms for years, so when bowel symptoms returned she first tried cutting dairy and coffee. Blood in her stool and feeling constantly unwell finally pushed her to seek answers. Colonoscopy found a 4 cm mass, and at…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Sonja’s Patient Story
Sonja Rideout was diagnosed on October 19, 2022, with Stage II HER2-positive breast cancer after ultrasound and biopsy of a 2-inch breast mass. Her treatment began with 4 months of chemotherapy, followed by a total mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Jennifer’s Patient Story
Jennifer’s Stage IV lung cancer was found almost by accident. She had been in a car accident that revealed a lung spot, but she did not learn about it until 10 months later. When she later saw her primary care doctor for what she thought was a sinus…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Tina’s Patient Story
Tina Powell is living with Stage IV lung cancer and uses her Lung Cancer Strong channel to explain chemotherapy from the patient side. By November 2025, she had received 27 rounds of chemotherapy in different combinations over 3 years. She named pemetrexed…
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