Finished chemo and radiation for local recurrence of adenocarcinoma non small cell

i HAVE THE SAME CANCER, HOWEVER, I DON'T THINK I HAVE NON SMALL CELL MAYBE STAGE 1. NO TREATMENT YET. DISCOVERED IN 2013. I HAD 2 SURGERIES, RT. ULOBECTOMY AND 2 RESECTIONS OF LEFT LUNG. THEY ARE WAITING FOR MORE GROWTH ON RT. TO DO BX. BUT DANA FARBER IN MA. DISCOVERED A LIQUID BIOPSY FOR CANCER THAT IS VERY PROMISING. I'M HOPING TO BE ABLE TO GET IN ON THAT?
BETTY HAVE A GREAT TIME WITH YOUR SIS IN VA.

Hi Merilee,

I was diagnosed with Stage 2b non-small cell adenocarcinoma in June 2018. Mine is due to a mutation in the EGFR gene, Exon 19. They took out my upper right lung lobe. After that, I had 33 rounds of radiation and four of chemo. Passed all of my PET and CAT scans for the next two years. However, in July 2020 I started experiencing what I called "muscle spasm incidents". Big clue we all missed: only on the right side. Those later got rebranded as "mini-seizures" after they found the 3 cm cyst in my left parietal lobe. The lung cancer was back, metastasized to my brain.

I asked why it didn't show on the PET scan and my Oncologist told me that PET scans look for sugar uptake. But the entire brain is taking up sugar all the time! Too much background noise to even see a 3 cm cyst. Unfortunately, a cranial CAT scan is not considered the current standard of care for lung cancer, even though lung cancer is known to travel to the brain. With 20/20 hindsight, I would have begged/pleaded/whipped my Oncologist with a wet noodle to get an annual cranial CT scan!

Brain surgery got rid of that cancer and three more rounds of highly-targeted (sub-millimeter accuracy) radiation. Now I'm on Tagrisso, which crosses the blood/brain barrier.

I wish you the best of luck! I hope you got that cancer early enough and it now leaves you alone!

Matthew