{"id":265987,"date":"2026-02-03T19:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265987\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T19:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:53:13","slug":"stage-iv-lung-cancer-survivor-go-straight-to-md-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265987\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage IV lung cancer survivor: \u2018Go straight to MD Anderson\u2019\u202f"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time\u00a0I was diagnosed with\u00a0stage IV<\/a>\u00a0lung cancer<\/a>\u00a0in the fall\u00a0of 2024, it\u00a0had\u00a0spread<\/a>\u00a0all\u00a0over my body.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scans<\/a>\u00a0showed\u00a0the cancer was in my collar bones, shoulder blades, femur, pancreas and adrenal glands. I also had a broken pelvis, four cracked ribs and six fractured vertebrae. The cancer was literally eating through my bones. At one point, I had more than 40 lesions\u00a0in my brain<\/a>,\u00a0too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My\u00a0doctors in Mississippi\u00a0told me\u00a0I only\u00a0had\u00a0about\u00a0three months left to live<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m still here more than a year later \u2014 and I show no evidence of disease<\/a>. I\u2019m convinced it\u2019s because I went to MD Anderson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My unexpected stage IV lung cancer diagnosis<\/p>\n

I was only 46 at the time of my diagnosis. And cancer doesn\u2019t\u00a0run in my family<\/a>.\u00a0Until then, I\u2019d also been the type of person who was never sick. So, my\u00a0cancer diagnosis<\/a>\u00a0came\u00a0as a huge shock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only reason I even found out is because I bent down to pick some vegetables in my garden. When I stood back up, I could hardly walk. I felt a sudden, terrible jolt of pain in my right hip, pelvis and lower back. My doctor thought I\u2019d pinched a sciatic nerve. But when I was still in a wheelchair a week later, he ordered an MRI. It turned out that my hip bone was broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A\u00a0bone\u00a0marrow\u00a0biopsy<\/a>\u00a0confirmed it was due to cancer, an aggressive kind called\u00a0small cell lung cancer<\/a>. It had spread from a tumor hidden beneath my breastbone that no one even noticed until I got a\u00a0PET scan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why I went to MD Anderson<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty hard-headed. I also have a lot of faith. So, once I got past the initial shock, I started taking stock. I still couldn\u2019t walk, but I had two teens and a husband, and I wasn\u2019t done living yet. I couldn\u2019t accept the prognosis my doctors had given me.<\/p>\n

I sought\u00a0treatment<\/a>\u00a0locally\u00a0at\u00a0first,\u00a0near my home outside of Jackson.\u00a0But I had\u00a0such a bad\u00a0reaction to\u00a0one of the drugs\u00a0that\u00a0I had to be put into\u00a0a medically induced coma.\u00a0My left lung collapsed, and my right lung was filling up with fluid. It took me four days to recuperate.<\/p>\n

Once I recovered and the hospital released me, nobody could really explain why that happened. We kept asking questions, but nobody had any answers. Even so, the doctors still wanted to move forward with my treatment. By then, I was too scared to continue treatment locally. I called MD Anderson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hope without sugarcoating\u00a0<\/p>\n

I met\u00a0with\u00a0Dr. Marcelo V. Negrao<\/a>\u00a0within two weeks.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a medical oncologist\u00a0at MD Anderson\u00a0who specializes in thoracic\u00a0cancers.\u00a0During our very first visit,\u00a0I told him, \u201cLook: I don\u2019t want to die.\u201d He replied, \u201cWell, you are very sick, but we will do what we can. I won\u2019t give up if you won\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After reviewing my previous scans and tests, he conducted some of his own. Based on the results, Dr. Negrao told me that the bad reaction I\u2019d experienced was likely due to a particular immunotherapy<\/a> drug. So, I couldn\u2019t have that one again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a\u00a0new\u00a0targeted immunotherapy\u00a0drug<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0tarlatamab-dlle\u00a0was showing a lot of\u00a0promise. It had\u00a0just been\u00a0granted accelerated approval\u00a0by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0spring\u00a0for the treatment of advanced small cell lung cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was\u00a0apprehensive about trying something new.\u00a0But Dr. Negrao was very reassuring. He explained exactly how the drug worked, which side effects<\/a> I might experience, and why he thought it was a really good option for me. He answered every single question I had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Negrao\u00a0is a\u00a0part of the team\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0studying this drug at MD Anderson,\u00a0so\u00a0I felt like he knew it\u00a0inside and out.\u00a0That made me feel really comfortable. I also appreciated how straightforward he was. He didn\u2019t sugarcoat anything, but I still left feeling a renewed sense of hope.<\/p>\n

My stage IV lung cancer treatment<\/p>\n

I started receiving infusions of tarlatamab at MD Anderson in March 2025. After only four doses, I showed a marked improvement. Scans revealed a lot of the lesions had either shrunk or disappeared entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Negrao wanted me to keep taking tarlatamab. But we had to pause that plan to address some brain lesions first. About 14 had popped up on my scans between the third and fourth rounds of treatment. By the time I got another scan, there were more than 40, and two were becoming actual tumors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Negrao\u00a0said\u00a0full-brain\u00a0radiation\u00a0therapy<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0the\u00a0only way to treat this.\u00a0So, he worked with a local radiation oncologist to give me 14 sessions over three weeks in the summer of 2025. I resumed the tarlatamab infusions after that.<\/p>\n

By August, all of my scans were clear, except for a couple of tiny spots that were just dead tissue. By December 2025, everything was gone. I\u2019ve shown no evidence of disease since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why I tell other people not to settle\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, I thought, \u201cIf I can just get a few more years out of life and see my youngest child turn 18, I\u2019ll be happy.\u201d Showing no evidence of disease seemed completely unattainable, so I didn\u2019t even think to wish for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019m not out of the woods yet. But my last scans were clear, and I\u2019ve definitely been given some extra time. So, I am not taking that for granted. Reaching that particular milestone is still my ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m still getting infusions of tarlatamab every other Monday with a local oncologist who works closely with Dr. Negrao. I\u2019ll keep taking that drug either for the rest of my life or until it stops working. I go back to MD Anderson every three months now for scans.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0also\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0function day-to-day\u00a0without\u00a0some type of\u00a0pain medication<\/a>, due to all the damage to my bones. But aside from that, the only side effects I\u2019ve had are low-grade fever, chills, a mild headache, fatigue<\/a> and some memory loss. I am very grateful.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I tell everybody now, \u201cGo straight to MD Anderson.\u201d Do not settle. Even if another hospital system tells you nothing else is possible, don\u2019t accept that unless MD Anderson says it, too. They have options there that are not available anywhere else.<\/p>\n

Request an appointment at MD Anderson online<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0call 1-877-632-6789.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time\u00a0I was diagnosed with\u00a0stage IV\u00a0lung cancer\u00a0in the fall\u00a0of 2024, it\u00a0had\u00a0spread\u00a0all\u00a0over my body.\u00a0\u00a0 Scans\u00a0showed\u00a0the cancer was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25818,151619,134,12208,5991,111,139,69,151620,6293,88372,73167,151621],"class_list":{"0":"post-265987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-caregivers","9":"tag-family-friends","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-immunotherapy","12":"tag-lung-cancer","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-patient-caregiver-stories","17":"tag-patients","18":"tag-survivors","19":"tag-targeted-therapy","20":"tag-thoracic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}