Elephants and Tea - Precision Medicine - 16

Biomarker Testing
HOW TESTING CHANGED MY TREATMENT
Precision Medicine
Thriving with
BY KATIE HULAN
F
irst, it's a puzzled look.
Then, the rhetorical
question,
" you have
cancer? " , as the person
I just told tries to make
sense of what I said. I get
it, it doesn't make sense.
They are trying to reconcile the person
they see-a young, healthy-looking
woman-with the sickly image of a cancer
patient.
I continue, " yep, I was diagnosed at 33
with stage IV lung cancer. I was told I
only have a few months to live. Now, I am
learning to live with it. "
It's not lost on me that I should not be
here. Without the targeted treatment I
have now, I would most likely not be alive
today. The statistics for my specific cancer
are difficult to read:
Two decades ago, patients with stage IV
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) had
a two percent chance of achieving a fiveyear
survival rate, according to National
Cancer Institute (NCI) data.1
Without any cancer treatment, half of
patients with metastatic Anaplastic Lymphoma
Kinase (ALK) cancer would die
within less than 12 months.1
As I just hit my third cancerversary, I
still remember the first two intense days of
my cancer discovery and diagnosis. I was
working full time, wrapping up projects,
and ready to start planning for the next
few. It was just another day, working from
home. I was feeling well.
A couple minutes before heading into a
meeting, I got a call from my doctor who
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Elephants and Tea - Precision Medicine

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