When Laura got a cold, she was surprised that while the rest of her symptoms eased, her cough never went away. Looking back, Laura remembers feeling more tired and worn down for a few years prior to the cough. “I thought I was just getting old, that you just slow down a lot as you get older,” she said. And Laura had no history of lung disease in her family, so she wrote it off as bronchitis. It would be almost a year later at her annual veteran's check-up, before her healthcare provider learned about the problem.
Concerned by the length of time Laura’s cough had lingered, her doctor decided to send her for a chest X-ray which showed several nodules on her lungs. “My doctor assured me that it was pretty common for service members to get nodules, and she thought we could probably just monitor them to see if they would grow,” Laura explained. In her mid-thirties and always healthy, Laura wasn’t worried about much as she went to her CT scan, which would provide the baseline size of the nodules.
It was during that CT scan that everything changed. The scan revealed that Laura had a large mass in her right lung that needed immediate attention. She was sent to a pulmonologist for a biopsy and genetic testing which revealed that Laura had stage IV lung cancer that was caused by the EGFR Exon 20 mutation. Exon 20 biomarkers are resistant to typical EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which are drugs that block cancer growth.
“Of all the hundreds of types of genetic mutations of lung cancer, two have targeted treatments that require just taking specific pills that are used to shrink the tumor,” Laura said. This was the answer for her. Because of targeted therapy, she did not have to do radiation, surgery or chemotherapy. Instead, she takes a daily pill which, after only three months of this treatment, had completely shrunk her tumor.
Her cancer is still considered active, so Laura continues to get annual checkups and brain scans to ensure that the cancer doesn’t spread. But she has been able to go back to a normal routine. “I consider myself pretty lucky after hearing other people’s stories,” says Laura.
Finding and Offering Lung Cancer Support
On the day of her CT scan, Laura had lunch with her friend Andrea whose mother had passed away from lung cancer. Laura opened up about her worries, and her friend suggested looking into the American Lung Association for information and support. Andrea had started her own Lung Association sponsored fundraiser called Lip Sync for Lungs a few years earlier. Laura had attended previously but she decided to get more involved in this event, among others. “This is my best way of turning my cancer diagnosis into something positive, where I can help other people,” Laura said.
This year, Laura took her message of the importance of lung cancer research to Washington DC for LUNG FORCE Advocacy Day. There she shared her story with members of Congress and met other lung cancer survivors who understood her struggle and offered support. “It was a truly amazing experience, getting to meet members of Congress and realizing how much power we can have in terms of policy and getting things done,” Laura said.
Her continued advocacy work is a direct result of the overwhelming support she received after her diagnosis and how it helped her through a very rough year. “When you are going through a tough time it can be sometimes hard to see the good in this world, but when there are so many people wanting to be helpful and supportive, and sending love, it is incredibly invaluable. The sense of community and willingness to help just blew me away,” she said.
“I received support from people who had never known me but were genuinely kind and just wanted to help. So now I just want to give back and help in any way I can.”
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Blog last updated: October 23, 2024
