I am glad I found your website! My husband was diagnosed 9/2015 with stage IV NSCLC. He has been found to have an EGFR mutation, apparently one that is not receptive to Erlotinib for any length of time. I believe it is a 20 mutation.
So far: one round of chemo: taxol and carboplatin. Pretty rough! He wound up dehydrated and needed fluids five days after the chemotherapy. Bill is a non-smoker. Probably 3 more chemo sessions. We live at 8,100 feet above sea level and his pulse ox is good: 92-98! BP normal.

Almost 6 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC with mets to the brain. Since that time, he's had a single round of chemo, chest radiation x2, Gamma Knife on brain mets, and WBR once. The tumors in the chest are almost nonexistent and not growing. The mets to the brain are tiny and only growing by 1-2 mm every 6-9 months. Traditional medicine leaves us with traditional results and those results predicted that only 5-10% of people in his situation live past 5 years. He still smokes about 2 packs of cigarettes daily.

I'm a lung cancer survivor who has signed up to complete the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1st, 2015.
Please support me in my efforts and feel free to share the url below to build awareness!

https://www.supportalcf.org/RebeccaNYC

Thanks!

I'm a 38 yr. old wife and mother of 4 and am also 4 months pregnant with a baby girl. I have no health insurance except for pregnancy Medicaid which only covers my OB visits and delivery. I have had almost every symptom of Pancoast Tumors for a solid year now. I've had chiropractic care, massage and trigger point therapy and so have ruled out any musculoskeletal causes for the pain in my shoulder and surrounding. Thanks for providing a place for me to reach out because I don't even know where to start with this; I'm scared and in so much pain.

Greetings to all. I am a newly diagnosed with stage 3B ALK+ Adenocarcinoma NSCLC. I am a 62 year-old female from the San Francisco Bay Area. Since learning I was ALK+ last week, I have gone from knowing nothing to being a "research sponge." One thing that I have searched for an answer to but can not find is whether anyone had had experience going straight to Crizotinib without radiation?

I hope that this isn't a repeat of last info. I did search the forums first but couldn't really find an answer. My husband has been on Zykadia for 19 weeks today. He has remained on 750 mg. Up until now he has had minimal side effects. Liver function studies holding steady and only a few days here and there until this past week. Now he's had about 5 days of diarrhea. I'm just wondering how long before a dose reduction is needed? We've been trying Imodium which works but not for long. We saw his oncologist 2 weeks ago and of course no side effects at that time.

I went in for a ct scan in july and have tried not to worry about it but I keep getting more worried as I am getting some symptoms (chest pain, shortness of breath, and some slight coughing).

Hello! I'm so glad to have found this site. You have such an amazing amount of information and an impressive team of experts.

I was diagnosed in May with ED mixed SCLC (both lungs, one lymph, spleen), discovered very early with largest tumor about 24 cm. As I understand it, they are neuroendocrine tumors.

I received all 6 courses of carboplatin/etopside and followup contrast CT showed complete response for 2 tumors, but one in each lung and the spleen tumor showed little shrinkage.

First of all THANK YOU for being here. Your mission meets a need quite precisely.

My question is a request for a discussion of the variation within cancer cells, in particular EGFR mutations and cancer stem cells as it relates to treatment. I hope this is focused enough to be considered one question.

In general how much variation is there between cancer cells by individual? between individuals? Does this vary by type (I'm most interested in NSCLC) or stage? Does the organization or lack thereof create differentiation between cancer cells?

I am sure that I have SCLC. After a general anaesthetic last year for an appendectomy I had a sharp pain in my chest when breathing. This pain subsided after 2 weeks. Since then I have had extreme tiredness, fatigue, weight loss (but central weight gain), muscle loss particularly in arms/shoulders and now progressing to my legs, loose bowels and dull headache. I did notice these symptoms before my operation but they have become more marked. I often wake in the early hours of the morning with a need to urinate, however my bladder is empty when I go to bed and I stop drinking at 6:30pm.