Category: Biomarker Testing

Cancer Builds Character

For those who don’t have cancer, the mere thought of it invading your body is mind boggling, shiver inducing, cringeworthy. You can lose sleep over this shit. I know, I’ve had plenty of sleepless nights. But those were early on in my journey. Three plus years in, I sleep like a baby. Which is not to say that I don’t think about it, that I don’t worry, that I’m not sad that cancer has changed my life in ways that I didn’t expect. Oh yeah, I experience all those things and more. But I’m not angry, and I know I’m a better person than I was before I was diagnosed. Cancer, my friends, builds character.

I’ve been called many things in the past three years, four months, and twelve days. (Yep, I remember the exact date I got the big news.) Warrior, brave, survivor, strong, bitch, sick, Cancer Barbie. I’ve been told that I have to die sometimes. (Imagine.) I’ve read crushing statistics on lung cancer. I’ve been asked time and again if I smoke. (Nope.) I’ve hiked thousands of miles. Traveled thousands more. Buried a sister. Retired from teaching. Seen cancer come and go in my lung, neck, sternum, stomach, pancreas, hips, and flank. Seen “healthy” people pass away before me. Bought a house. Wrote a book about my experience. Learned to like myself again. Learned who really loves me. Learned who my friends are and who aren’t. Learned so much about myself. Learned things that I never wanted to know. Cancer was there the whole time, guiding my way.

In fact, for me, cancer is not going away completely until a cure is discovered. To prove it, my little friend is flaring up in the aforementioned flank, and I will need to have day surgery to get rid of it, once again prompting the kinder of the words: strong, brave, amazing. I don’t feel any of those things. Damn it, I just want to live my life. It just keeps getting interrupted by this disease. I don’t have a choice but to be strong, brave, and amazing. It’s a whole lot better than the alternative. And man, I’m pretty lucky to have choices in the matter. To have a alternative to the alternative. To keep living my life with periodic annoyances. So many people with cancer don’t have these choices.

I’ve consistently and extensively traveled the world, the country, and my local area. Once, when it seemed that I had a lot less to worry about than now, I was in a group of travelers at my school. I still see the people I effortlessly traveled with doing the same thing I used to do with them. Truth is, I still do it too, just with more planning and caution. COVID19 slowed me down a lot more than cancer did. The point being, I can still do what I love. With cancer! But back to the crowd I used to globetrot with. I’m not asked to join anymore. That’s okay, I have a travel companion or two, and I love hitting the road and the sky on my own. I’ve changed too, my priorities are different. I’m not counting countries anymore. I’m going where I really want to go, even if I’ve been there ten times before, even if others are in “exotic” venues and I’m hiking a national park or exploring some abandoned place with cool graffiti. In short, I have nothing in common with most of these people any longer. Being left behind is fine. I’m good. I have experience now that most of them wouldn’t understand or acknowledge or care about. Why would I want to be with them? My entire way of thinking and seeing the world has evolved. I have more respect for the cancer infested me than the earlier me.

If cancer builds character, man, do I have character! And as mentioned above, I’m currently in the throes of gaining more, what with my “side bump” growing again, a literal “thorn in my side.” In some crazy way I’ll be happy to get rid of the little bugger; it’s lodged in my skin on my right flank at the tenth rib, and though it has not been any bother in two years, before then it gave me hell. Buh-bye!

What are the most character building lessons I’ve learned from cancer?

That cancer is a bigger bitch than I am. But only sometimes. That if I give up even for a minute, I’ll die. That I’m extremely lucky in an unlucky situation. That I can’t count on my current family members for anything, unless I want to play their game, stoop to their level, or be subjected to their vitriol. I’ve learned to reach out to friends, as tough as it is for me to ask them for anything. The rest of the time, I’ve learned more than ever to count on my cancer ridden self. I’ve learned that so many things that used to concern me really don’t matter in the big picture of life. I’ve learned to turn my back on situations and people that aren’t worth my time. I know how to pick my battles well now. I’ve truly learned the lessons of survival.

But what I have learned most of all is this: there is no bigger fight than the fight for your life. If you’ve never experienced having your very existence in jeopardy, you wouldn’t truly know what I’m talking about, no matter how much you think you do. Never underestimate the power of impending death to change you or that person that you know is struggling.

Respect, please.

Dispelling Cancer Myths

Cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer!

Sheesh, you probably say, does this woman think about anything else besides CANCER?

Truth is, I think about A LOT of other things besides cancer. In fact, I’ve hardly thought about cancer at all in the past month because I have been so busy trying to make important changes in my life. But time and time again I come up with more things I want to write about the subject, and let’s be honest, don’t you want to read about life with cancer from someone who actually IS living life with cancer? Instead of a so-called “expert” who writes for one of those cheesy medical sites? Thought so.

This time around I will expand on something I’ve toyed with in other posts: myths about cancer. I have five biggies to cover, fictitious beliefs that I have encountered time and again in the past three years of my “journey.” Here goes!

People get lung cancer from smoking. Therefore, they deserve it. This is totally false, and I know this firsthand. While I smoked long ago, I quit when I was seventeen years old, a full thirty-five years before my diagnosis. Non-smoker lung cancer cases are on the rise from environmental factors such as longtime exposure to radon, which is now the second biggest reason (behind smoking) that people get lung cancer. Neither of these was why I got it. My lung cancer was a genetic alteration. So, asking me smoking related questions is really shitty and ignorant, and if I spit at you remember you asked for it. Don’t do it to anyone, because you really don’t know the reason. And even if the person in question got it from smoking, it’s pretty crappy to assume anyone deserves to have a disease because of a bad habit that is very hard to kick.

All women who get cancer want to be referred to as “warriors.” Nope. Wrong again. I feel like this myth is embedded deep in our culture, since my recent post about this very subject was hardly read or commented on, was even largely ignored by a faithful group of friends who regularly read and applaud my stuff. Yeah, it’s tough for someone to speak the truth and go against the grain of what the general population wants to believe. It’s just so interesting to envision a woman with cancer fighting with all she has and, sometimes, going down in a blaze of glory. Well let me further burst your bubble: there isn’t any glory in dying of cancer. I watched my sister perish from the same curse I’m stuck with now. And I’ll say it again, from my own personal experience: I’m not interested in being your warrior. All I’m interested in is being ME. And I know for sure that I’m not the only cancer survivor who feels this way.

“Big Pharma” is Withholding a Cure for Cancer. This makes me want to scream. Again and again, I notice something really interesting about this myth: the individuals who believe it don’t have cancer. They are experts at something they have never experienced firsthand. I have not heard anyone with cancer make this claim. Because we know that it’s nonsense. “Big Pharma” would make ten times more money curing cancer than they would withholding a cure for cancer. Think about it. I never believed this claim even before I was diagnosed, even from the outside not wanting to see inside. Now, from the inside looking out, I’m in even more disbelief that anyone could be so stupid as to believe it.

Only Unhealthy People Get Cancer. I was one of the healthiest people out there, always took care of myself, was in great shape, ate as well as I could, didn’t and don’t have any bad habits. It would seem that my vigilance didn’t work, but when looked at another way, one could easily say that the reason I’m still alive and kicking is because I was healthy to start with. In fact, when I asked my former oncologist why I “made it” when so many others don’t, he pointed to my lifestyle before cancer as one of the two biggest factors. (The other one is that I have continued to live my life similarly post-diagnosis.) When people claim that they are healthy and won’t get ill because they eat their vegetables and drink their green tea, I just smile, knowing the irony. Living a healthy existence can prepare you for if and when the worst happens to you, but it doesn’t always mean that the worst isn’t going to happen.

Stage IV Cancer is a Death Sentence. Walking around with the knowledge that you have cancer at the deadliest stage is hardly a picnic, but it isn’t necessarily a death sentence anymore. Targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and several other cutting edge treatments are working wonders for patients like yours truly and allowing us to not only live longer and live better, but to turn the tables on cancer, as well as the general perceptions surrounding it. For many of us, the days of suffering more from treatment than from the actual disease are in the past, and every day brings us closer and closer to a cure. I regularly have people tell me that if they didn’t know I have cancer they would never guess, because I look so healthy. I hope to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.

To further illustrate the mythological aspect of the final item, I’m heading to Ireland next week, and I hereby promise to write a nice post (with lots of pictures!) that has nothing to do with cancer when I get back! Until then, I hope you will ponder what is true and what isn’t when you think about this awful disease.

Coming Clean, Round 2

Me at 53, after cancer, Round 1

It’s inching closer, my cancerversary! Less than a week away, when this goes public. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my journey anymore, but most people don’t know all the crazy details, so I’m letting them be known for anyone who cares to read. Last week I recounted my first “round” of cancer and treatment. You can read the post here. All involved were hoping for a knockout punch that would last a lifetime, but it was not to be. After radiation to my lung and neck, and a year of targeted therapy, I noticed a small bump on my right flank. My oncologist sent me to a dermatologist in November of 2020. The skin guy did a biopsy in the office, and as I awaited results I headed down to South Carolina to see my niece. Surrounded by love from her and her three adorable dogs, we decorated her Christmas tree, went bowling, and shopped for homemade soap at a local farm. A huge celebration occurred when the results came through: No new cancer! The bump should go away. Life went on happily!

If the bump had gone away and life had gone on happily I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. The next month, just a few days after my 54th birthday, I went to Boston for a PET scan, with my fingers crossed that I would get the coveted news that I had No Evidence of Disease (NED), a designation that I had cut so close during the summer. I wasn’t feeling well, but I still had hope. Feeling crappy had become a way of life even before cancer, and after treatment it was even more so. Fatigue and exhaustion would hit me and stay for a week or more, but I’d keep pushing through to feeling better. By this time I had put my life back on track fully, I was on pace to shatter my yearly mileage record for walking and hiking, road trips were happening again, and I had great hopes for the future.

Which made the results of my PET scan all the more shattering: I had more cancer. That bump on my back meant something. It had not gone away, and was now lighting up as cancer on the scan. But there was worse news than that, as cancer had also infiltrated several other places, including both my hip muscles, my upper stomach, and worst of all, my pancreas. I won’t soon forget receiving this news in the cold of COVID19 December, all alone in Boston as the world got dark, and someone who is supposed to love me making it even darker. That last part is another story in and of itself, and at this point I’m over it. From here forward I’ll keep this post about cancer.

Now what? I was surely going to die, with cancer happily invading my space again. I would have to switch medications. My oncologist’s suggestion was a clinical trial for a brand new tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI, like the one I was currently on, but considered a”next generation” drug, called Repotrectinib. Before I could go on it I had to endure a new series of scans and blood tests, and a fresh biopsy to be sure that the new metastasis was the same as the old one. I also went back to South Carolina to dog-sit my favorites canines while my niece went to Florida. Perhaps it would be my last trip there.

I had so much new cancer I was having trouble keeping track of it, so I made this fancy diagram:

My rendition of me, loaded with new cancer

Cute, isn’t it? Yeah, unless it’s you.

I waited a tense month for the drug company to accept me into the clinical trial. My cancer was growing, making the likelihood of death all the more certain if the new wonder pill didn’t work. The tumor on my back continued to grow and topped off at 3.3 x 3.0 centimeters before I started treatment. Not only was it disgusting to look at (this one was actually like a skin tumor and growing on the outside, unlike the tumors in my neck, which were under the skin,) but it was also bleeding and getting in the way of life, because if it rubbed against anything it would gush blood. I had to keep it covered 24/7 and couldn’t sleep on my right side. A few times I had to cancel plans with friends because I had to take care of my tumor. Yay, me! (Eye roll.)

By the time I started treatment in late January of 2021, all my tumors had grown. In centimeters, my pancreatic lesion was 2.1 x 2.0. Left hip: 3.2 x 1.9. Stomach: 2.7 x 2.1. And tipping the scales at 8.4 x 3.8, the right hip tumor. They had gained considerable steam in a matter of a month. And that bleeding tumor in my side? Any information that I found on lung cancer metastasis to soft tissue was extremely grim. I was literally dying for treatment. Again.

Somehow, I kept going. Shout outs to several friends and a few family members for sticking with me and helping me through. Remote learning saved my finances. I got an accommodation from my school system to teach from home until the end of the school year in June of 2021. The tumor on my back, as disgusting as it was, turned out to be a creepy blessing, as I was able to watch it shrink down to nearly nothing and knew the medication was working. Within six weeks I didn’t need to cover it any longer, and it stopped bleeding.

I kept hiking and walking. Went back to South Carolina in February, revisited my beloved Southern Utah in April, took two fantastic road trips this past summer.

I get scanned every eight weeks on the clinical trial. I don’t feel fabulous most of the time, and am currently sore as hell and have weakness in my legs, but hey, the bottom line is that I’m still able to do everything I love. As long as my luck holds out, I’ll be heading to Costa Rica for Christmas!

Let this sink in: Thus far, I have survived cancer in my lung, neck, hips, pancreas, flank, and stomach. Last scan, in early September, my hips and pancreas were clear, with the stomach and flank tumors significantly reduced. Still hoping for NED!

Sigh.

And what a two years it has been! Bring on the cancerversary!

10-2-21, Roosevelt Island, New York City

Coming Clean, Round 1

Here we are again, heading into the autumn season. At one time, this is when I’d be mourning summer, reminiscing about the road trips I’d just taken, and dreaming of the next years’s road trips. Almost unbelievably, I’m still doing all that, but for the past two years, September is also when I’m faced with memories of the beginning of my cancer journey. Yes, I’m coming up on my second cancerversary with Stage IV Lung Cancer, a diagnosis that few are lucky enough to survive. So I have to be prepared when I look at my Facebook memories, because chances are 100% that I’ll be seeing myself with a tumor growing in my sternum, the first sign that there was something not completely right in my world.

To “celebrate” the upcoming anniversary of my diagnosis, I will “come clean” with the many details of my journey of staying one step ahead of death, sometimes not even that. And because I know that I’ll need more than one post, I’m calling this Round 1.

I saw the lump in my sternum in late August of 2019. Felt it before then, a strange pulling feeling in my neck. And I was exhausted. But the summer was great. I had amazing road trips in the southern U.S. and southwestern U.S., and an incredible journey to Sri Lanka. Other than being really tired at the end of the day, I had no other sign of what was coming. I hiked hundreds of miles a month, and kept up my crazy schedule otherwise. Frequently I proclaimed myself a “lucky girl” for the life I was leading.

The 2019-2020 school year started well, my sixteenth year as a Special Ed teacher. Two weeks in, however, I began to feel intense pain in my neck and head, so bad that one day I had to leave and go to the ER. I also had the school nurse look at the lump in my sternum. She measured it at one centimeter and suggested I get it checked out. I didn’t pay much attention to it until I started to ache from the waist up, so badly I couldn’t think straight.

Thus started a string of doctor appointments, ER visits, and scans. An X-ray showed something happening in my lung. A CT scan was next. I sat on pins and needles while awaiting results, trying to function correctly while trying to convince myself that my life wasn’t falling apart. It couldn’t! I was a lucky girl, traveling and doing so many things I love to do!

My primary care doctor soon uttered the word “oncologist,” not because she thought I had cancer, but because she wanted to be sure I didn’t have cancer. And so, I entered the world of “the Big C”and oncology, hopefully for only one visit. That was not to be. After an overnight hospital visit, a series of scans including the all-powerful (and expensive) PET scan, and a ton of misinformation, I was told in one of my now-frequent ER visits, that I indeed had cancer. An “incidental finding” from a brain MRI also showed a tiny tumor, usually benign, called a meningioma. I have not revealed this until now, because I feared brain cancer. Over the past two years my little buddy has proven thus far to be unchanged and something that has likely been there for some time. Meningiomas are actually quite common. But at the time, it was more devastating news that would get worse before it would get better.

Two draining months went by as I ran from doctor to surgeon to specialist to radiologist and back to oncologist. The road trip I never wanted to take. The news was grim: Stage 3b non small cell lung cancer, (NSCLC) with radiation and chemotherapy in my foreseeable future. My team of local oncologist and radiation oncologist were hoping for “cure” but also sent out the biopsy tissue from my tumors for what is called biomarker testing, which could change the entire course of my treatment, if I was “lucky” enough to have one of the eight biomarkers in lung cancer. It could be the difference between taking a pill to kill cancer (what???!!!) by targeting a mutation in my tumors, or going through the common course of treatment, chemo and radiation. While we awaited results, a node on the side of my neck started to grow, and the tumors in my sternum and lung continued to get larger. I also had to have a biopsy on a growth in my throat that turned out to be benign, but that held up treatment by a couple of weeks. My dentist even chimed in with the possibility of a tumor in my gum. All arrows seemed to be pointing to death. Metastatic cancer. Everywhere!

The truth was that I had active and growing cancer in three places: lung, sternum, and neck node. The local team stuck with the 3b designation. Behind the scenes, I was considering a trip into Boston, about 75 miles from my Western Massachusetts home, or at least getting an online second opinion. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is consistently in the top five cancer centers in the country, and friends were telling me that I needed to go there. Admittedly, I dragged my feet, because I thought I was doing okay with the local hospital. But I had the good sense to talk to my oncologist about it, who sent a referral. His staff set up an appointment for me, which was after I had already started radiation, but was the very day before I was set to start chemo. How’s that for timing?

Starting treatment was at least going in the right direction, or so it seemed, but the worst news of all came through: seven out of eight biomarkers came through as negative, so there would be no pills for me. So much for being a “lucky girl.” Bring on the chemo!

November 13, 2019 is a day that lives in infamy for me, for it’s the day that I went to Boston for my appointment at Dana-Farber. It’s the day that I found out that I was in Stage IV, but that I indeed had a biomarker, the eighth one, ROS1, and that I could stop radiation, cancel chemo, and swallow a pill! Two weeks later I started a drug called Rozlytrek (entrectinib) that by some miracle shrank all three of my tumors. The one in my sternum went away altogether. The other two shrank enough that I could have consolidative radiation therapy, that had the possible promise of a long life restored!

For most of 2020, things were moving steadily in that direction, even through COVID19. I had radiation on my lung tumor, and later, my neck node was radiated. Whew, what a cancer ride! This looked like the end of it for me! Had I ever lucked out! Imagine, possibly cured of Stage IV Lung Cancer!

I had lucked out. But it wasn’t over. I wasn’t quite that lucky.

Before I could even enjoy winning round one, round two was ready to take me to the mat.

Me, one year after diagnosis, road tripping between rounds one and two

Why Beating Cancer is a Lottery

Big Win

You can’t win if you don’t play.

And sometimes, you can’t win even if you do.

Does that title sound weird? Apologies ahead of time, but the more I deal with this disease and the more I hear of other people’s struggles with it, the more like a lottery cancer seems. One of the most interesting, but cruel, things about the Big C is that it isn’t choosy who it kills and who it spares. I call it “the great equalizer.”

Earlier in the week, we learned that the lovely Kelly Preston, John Travolta’s wife, was secretly battling breast cancer for two years. Alex Trebek has been beating the pancreatic cancer odds for about as long. And we know that Steve Jobs, in spite of being a billionaire, lost the fight after eight years. Yet, a poor chick like me can get some top shelf medical care and do okay.

On June 22nd I had my third PET scan, three months after pinpoint radiation to my lung. My radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber felt as though she would be able to cure my lung tumor…and did. My scan was nearly clear, and I have Stage IV lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer by far. Granted, my metastasis is very limited and, in fact, does not include any other major organs. Even so, good luck finding a case like mine out there in medical land.  This doesn’t happen on a regular basis. I have been extremely lucky. I’m not supposed to be here and wouldn’t be if I didn’t go to a comprehensive cancer center for my care. So yes, I’m winning the cancer lottery!

The cancer lottery has little to do with money. Buy your ticket, pick your numbers carefully, and hope for the best.

Back to that PET scan for a minute. One small sight was still lighting up, a node in my right shoulder muscle. Currently, I’m in Boston undergoing fifteen treatments of radiation to rid my body of the last traces of a disease that normally kills people much stronger than I.  I fully expect that my next scan will be clear.

Sigh.

How did this happen?

First, let me point out that I didn’t get lung cancer because I was a smoker. Yes, I smoked when I was a teenager, but the cause of my disease is what my oncologist refers to as a “genetic accident.” No one knows when it started, but there’s a fair chance that it had been growing for many years, and wasn’t discovered until last September, when a tumor started to appear in the area of my sternum. As horrendous as it was to have a visible tumor, the fact that I could see it is yet another way that I got “lucky in an unlucky situation.” Lung cancer rarely has signs that can be seen. As I sit here typing this I’m overwhelmed by how things could have been so different for me.

I also won the treatment lottery. Because of a mutation in my tumors, I bypassed chemo and was able to take a pill to shrink my cancer down to a size where radiation could be used to eradicate the remainder. Cutting edge treatment, folks. Of course I’m really simplifying it. The fact that the medication worked so well was another miracle. Jeez, did I ever hit the jackpot!

As I walk the polished floors of Dana-Farber and Brigham & Women’s in Boston, I see little old ladies just out of chemo bent over in wheelchairs, and little kids with bald heads taken from appointment to appointment by their vigilant and exhausted parents. No one wants to lose this battle.

A growing number of cancer patients become long-term survivors. We know what happens to the rest. But what’s the deciding factor?

Luck definitely has a lot to do with it, and a fortunate roll of the dice. But making good decisions has a major chapter in the plan book, too.

Here’s what worked for me.

First and foremost, the best medical care that I could get. After that, a predominantly positive attitude. Prayers and good vibrations from whomever was offering. Sidestepping negativity. Fighting to keep my mind and body strong. Educating myself as much as I could in all things lung cancer, and cancer in general. Getting back to doing the things I love to do sooner than could have been predicted. Being in very good physical shape to start with. Having a decent diet. Finding the joy in life again. Asking questions and getting answers. And relishing the miracle.

Are there people who do all these things and don’t get positive results? Unfortunately, yes. But don’t be one of the ones who doesn’t try.

As Americans, we love talking about who wins the Super Bowl and the World Series. We marvel at athletes in the Olympics and Wimbledon and the Indy 500. But here’s what a cancer survivor knows: There’s no bigger fight than the fight for your life. And when you win the cancer lottery, you’ve done something pretty special.

Play to win.

Cancer-Survive-Quote

The New Face of Surviving Cancer

What’s so new about surviving cancer? A ton.

As I travel this road of being a cancer survivor, I’m learning a hell of a lot. Maybe more than I ever learned as I crisscrossed the globe for two decades. Maybe more than I learned my entire life. Absolutely more than I ever wanted to know about this particular subject.

Now, it’s my reality and I’m going to live it. And if I can help others in the process, even better. Every dark cloud has a silver lining, right?

But let’s get back to that new face of surviving cancer.

What’s your perception of someone with the Big C? It’s this, right?

Chemo Two

This may still be reality for some unfortunate enough to get this disease, but not all. What if I told you that every single picture of me in this blog (and most on my website) were taken after my diagnosis, and that my appearance didn’t change at all as I’ve gone through treatment? That there are people wandering around out there in the world, like myself, that have cancer and you don’t even know it unless they tell you? You’d call me a liar, but that’s okay. It gives me a job to do here, changing your perception of what a cancer survivor looks like.

Let me just clear up one more thing.

You’ll see a lot of this stuff out there, too:

Chemo One

I’m going to title this one “Gorgeous Woman Who Has Never Known Cancer in Her Life Telling You That You Can Look as Happy and Fantastic as Her While Your Body and Your Identity Get Depleted By Chemo.” This is called “putting a happy face on a really crappy situation.” It’s misleading advertising at its best and worst. And this is absolutely not what I’m aiming for here. Nor am I suggesting that every chemo patient is ugly, or that any chemo or cancer patient is ugly. I’ve seen people look absolutely stunning in head wraps and/or wigs. Don’t know how they do it. I admire them greatly. In general, I think strength is way more admirable than the Kardashians.

Disclaimer: I was lucky enough to turn my back on chemotherapy, but was less than twenty-four hours away from having it when I was offered cutting edge treatment at a comprehensive cancer center.  I don’t know what chemo is “like” and I don’t plan to. But I do know what it’s like to think that this is the only way to rid my body of this demon called cancer. I was almost there. My lucky stars aligned and I was saved this misery. And this is why I’m so different.

I have lung cancer. And no, it’s not because I smoked, and no it is absolutely, positively not okay to assume that or to ask me about it as if it’s a given fact. That’s an unfortunate way the face of cancer is changing: lung cancer is on the rise in populations in otherwise healthy individuals like me. But that’s for another blog. For this one, let’s get just a bit deeper into two of the reasons that cancer is getting a much needed makeover.

I was diagnosed at a local hospital before I went to Dana-Farber in Boston, which is consistently in the top five cancer research institutes in the entire United States. My local hospital was prepping me for chemo and radiation, but had the good sense to send my biopsy tissue out for what is referred to as biomarker testing, though it may also be referred to otherwise. I can’t even stress how important it is to get this type of testing done if it’s available for your type of cancer. It could be the difference between vastly different treatment scenarios. It could be the difference between life and death, as it was for me. When you settle for chemo and radiation as a first line treatment, that is all you’re ever going to get, and at many small cancer facilities it may be your only option. I know now that if I had not gone to Boston I would not have lived long. Scary stuff.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a biomarker, you may be able to have something called targeted therapy, which is what I’m on. It’s basically a pill that targets the specific mutation in your tumor but usually doesn’t destroy anything else, like white blood cells, which is what chemo is known to do. Targeted therapy drugs often have many less side effects than chemo. It may sound far fetched, but the therapy that I take daily started shrinking visual tumors I had in less than a week and set me on the path of getting my life back. Results vary, (mine was phenomenal) but many people have great responses to these wonder drugs.

The second fairly new treatment is called immunotherapy, which uses your own immune system to attack cancer cells. Like targeted therapy, more cancer survivors are living longer lives with infusions of immunotherapy. Many options are available, and I’ve read several success stories.

It is accurate to say that targeted therapy and immunotherapy are rewriting the script on cancer and putting more people in the survivor column.

Before you accept chemo and radiation, be sure to look into all your treatment options.

And join me as the New Face of Surviving Cancer.