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After watching my grandmother die with emphysema, I resolved never to smoke. So, when I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer ¡ª and told I had less than year to live ¡ª I thought, ¡°This can¡¯t be happening.¡±

I just didn¡¯t make the connection, even though I¡¯d had a persistent cough for a few months, been losing weight without trying, felt a heaviness in my chest and even begun coughing up blood. I thought, ¡°How can I possibly have lung cancer? I¡¯ve never lived in a household with smokers, and I¡¯ve never smoked anything myself.¡±

At the time of my diagnosis in December 2019, I was only 43. My kids were 14, 13 and 9. I didn¡¯t know how to look my 9-year-old in the face and tell him, ¡°Baby, I¡¯m so sorry, but Mommy has terminal lung cancer.¡±

Webinar invitation leads to life-changing revelation?

Once I got over my initial shock, I started educating myself. I learned very quickly that I would never really be considered in remission. As a stage IV lung cancer patient, I would always need to be on some form of treatment.?

I sought that treatment initially near my home in Kentucky. It was OK at first. I was prescribed a daily oral targeted therapy agent called osimertinib, because I tested positive for a genetic mutation known as EGFR. I also had a type of radiation therapy called SBRT.

But I knew that the walnut-sized mass in my right lung might still be sending out cancer cells to colonize other places. So, I wanted the ¡°mothership¡± removed. No one around here would even consider it. Everyone said I didn¡¯t qualify for surgery because I¡¯d already had radiation to the lungs.

It wasn¡¯t until and asked a member of the Young Lung Cancer Initiative to moderate a webinar for them in July 2024 that I realized that might not actually be accurate anymore.

How lung surgery became possible, even with stage IV cancer

Dr. Gay and Dr. Antonoff reached out to me because I¡¯d started that non-profit organization with two girlfriends for lung cancer patients under age 50. The three of us were all frustrated by the lack of good information and resources available online, so we launched our own website for people in that demographic. It spread like wildfire. Soon, we were interacting regularly there with lung cancer experts like Dr. Gay and Dr. Antonoff, as well as their colleague, .

My a-ha moment didn¡¯t arrive, though, until the very end of that webinar. The topic was ¡°Surgery in stage IV lung cancer patients.¡± The last question we took was from a member of the audience. She described her diagnosis to the panel, then asked if she might qualify for surgery. The woman¡¯s situation sounded very similar to mine. So, I sat up and took notice when Dr. Antonoff responded, ¡°Well, I can¡¯t be sure without evaluating your individual case in more detail. But I don¡¯t see why not. It¡¯s certainly worth a consultation.¡±

Pathology report shows surgery was the right call

I made an appointment with Dr. Antonoff at MD Anderson a few days later. After conducting her own examination and looking through all of my scans, records and test results, she said, ¡°Well, you¡¯ve got a lot of scar tissue in the part of the right lung that was irradiated, but we really don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on at a cellular level without taking it out and looking at it under a microscope. I think we could do this.¡±

I agreed wholeheartedly. Dr. Antonoff performed a lobectomy on me at MD Anderson on Oct. 29, 2024. She removed the tumor as well as the middle lobe of my right lung.

When we got the pathology report back, I was so thankful we¡¯d pushed forward. Dr. Antonoff said that about 90% of the tumor cells were dead. But the remaining 10% still had active cancer in them, even though I¡¯d been on targeted therapy for almost five years. That made removing the tumor absolutely the right decision.?

My life expectancy went from 6 months to 10+ years

It¡¯s only been a few weeks since my lobectomy surgery. But I am already back to walking 45 minutes a day, and I feel fantastic.?

Dr. Antonoff told me that patients in some clinical trials have been living longer after having the same type of surgery I did. She said based on how healthy I was to begin with, she hoped that figure could extend to 20, or maybe even 30 years, for me.

When I heard that, I started crying. Because Dr. Antonoff saved my life and gave my kids back their mom. I know she can¡¯t guarantee anything. But if she can give me just 10 more years, even my youngest child will be out of college. And that¡¯s way different from leaving a 14-year-old without his mother.?

Other doctors kept saying this surgery was too risky. But Dr. Antonoff was bold enough to think outside the box and tackle the hard jobs so that people like me could live. I consider that a miracle.

That¡¯s why I tell everyone now not to waste their time at some piddly little community hospital, or to accept middle-of-the-road cancer care anywhere else. Start with MD Anderson. It is such a special place. They gave me a chance when no one else would. And, I am so thankful.?

or call 1-877-632-6789.

As a retired firefighter and combat veteran, I¡¯ve been in some pretty tough situations. But the hardest thing I¡¯ve ever done was sit my four children down and tell them I had stage IV lung cancer.

Two weeks earlier, they¡¯d watched me lay one of my co-workers to rest after he¡¯d died of stage IV pancreatic cancer. He was only 33. He was also a close family friend, so they had a front-row seat to his decline. They were worried I was next.

Fortunately, I chose MD Anderson for my lung cancer treatment. And in six months, I went from having tumors in my lungs, lymph nodes, ribs, and abdomen to showing no evidence of disease.

My lung cancer diagnosis

I was only 41 when I was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2022. My first symptom was a dry cough that hung around after I recovered from a cold. My wife asked me repeatedly to get it checked out. When I finally did, the doctor thought it might be pneumonia and prescribed steroids and an antibiotic.?

Nothing changed after a few weeks, so my doctor did some blood work. The tests kept coming back negative. Meanwhile, I was starting to feel worse. An X-ray revealed an area of concern in the lower lobe of my right lung, so my doctor sent me to a pulmonologist for a CT scan and a biopsy. Those results showed I had adenocarcinoma, a type of lung cancer.

MD Anderson has expertise in lung cancer with my specific genetic mutation?

I initially sought treatment for lung cancer in Milwaukee. That¡¯s the big city closest to my home in Wisconsin. But after getting a second opinion at MD Anderson, I decided to receive all of my care there.

With stage IV lung cancer, I already knew I was behind the eight ball. I was fighting for my life. So, once I found the best place in the nation for cancer care, it was hard to leave that and go anywhere else.?

At MD Anderson, I met first with , a medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of?thoracic cancers. He¡¯s also an expert in a genetic mutation called anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion, which my lung cancer had.?

When I first found out about the mutation, I thought, ¡°Great. Now, I¡¯ve tested positive for something else.¡± But it turned out to be a blessing. Diseases with mutations often have more specific treatment options available than those that don¡¯t. So, it was the best thing that could¡¯ve happened to me. It meant we could use the genetic mutation against itself.?

In the end, I found both the mutation and Dr. Gay¡¯s expertise reassuring. Even though my doctors in Milwaukee were on the right track, none of their five thoracic medical oncologists were ALK specialists. And at MD Anderson at that time, 9 out of 15 were.

My lung cancer treatment

Dr. Gay and his colleagues reviewed my care plan after confirming my diagnosis. They all agreed: they wanted me to discontinue the chemotherapy that I¡¯d started in Milwaukee and stay on an oral targeted therapy agent called alectinib instead. They¡¯d seen some really good results with it and wanted to reserve chemotherapy as an option for later.

I took their advice. After only two months on that drug, the tumors in my lungs had shrunk by 50%. I could breathe a lot better. All of my lymph nodes were returning to normal size, too, and the area in my abdomen that had previously shown cancer activity did not light up on scans at all.??

Surgery is not usually an option for patients with stage IV lung cancer. But MD Anderson has been a leader in offering surgery when appropriate, even with stage IV disease. And, they have enormous experience in performing operations on metastatic lung cancer. I did so well on the targeted therapy that surgery became an option for me. I jumped at the opportunity. It felt like my first chance to do something to strike back at the cancer, instead of just reacting to whatever it was doing.

Thoracic surgeon has a special interest in surgery for stage IV lung cancer and a lot of experience in performing it. She removed the middle and lower lobes of my right lung on March 24, 2023. I spent three days in the hospital and another week resting. When the pathology report came back, even my doctors were shocked. The cancer was completely gone. No living cancer cells could be found in any of the tissue samples taken from my lungs or lymph nodes. It was unbelievable.

Why I tell everyone to go to MD Anderson

In my mind, going from a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis to no evidence of disease is nothing short of a miracle. So, I feel blessed.

I had to take a medical retirement from firefighting, though, because the risks of smoke and chemical exposure were just too high for someone with my medical history and lung capacity. But I feel so good now that I¡¯ve been savoring my time with family and friends. I¡¯ve also been training again for an IRONMAN triathlon. I expect to compete in my second one of those on Sept. 8, in Madison.

That¡¯s why I tell everyone to go to MD Anderson. With a stage IV diagnosis, I didn¡¯t think I could ever be cancer-free, much less that fast. And I am so incredibly grateful.

or call 1-877-632-6789.