6 ms·
My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.
by formercoder 3y ago
My aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and is only alive because of this drug. It’s a marvel of modern medicine.
- declan_roberts 3y agoIt feels so good to read a comment like this. Thank you for sharing and I’m really happy for you and your family (and modern medicine that makes it all possible).
- jfengel 3y agoThat is indeed remarkable. Stage 4 lung cancer usually makes you seek out hospice care.
- kthartic 3y agoWow, that's incredible. So wholesome reading a comment like this on HN, makes me more hopeful of the future. Thanks for sharing
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- e40 3y agoMy wife was diagnosed in Nov '23. Stage 4. She had a mutation that allowed Tagrisso/osimertinib. There are many mutations, but this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. There was a trial published just after her diagnosis that showed progression free survival at 2 years of 57% (chemo+osimertinib) vs 41% (osimertinib). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2306434 She's 6 days into the chemo. There are 4 rounds of pemetrexed+carboplatin and then maintenance carboplatin (forever). Every 21 days. So far, it's been rough, but hopefully her body will adjust and once she's just on carboplatin hopefully her quality of life will be better. She had few side effects from the osimertinib, but the main one was mouth sores. They're gone now, thankfully. Another thing people need to know about this: this diagnosis often comes with regular thoracentesis (removal of fluid from the chest). In this case, it's in the lining of her lung, not lung itself. Advice to anyone in this situation: make all future appointments for thoracentesis, because you don't want to go into the ER/ED to get it done. And, we've stopped allowing residents to practice on her (once it was quite painful). EDIT: Forgot to add: carboplatin crosses the blood-brain barrier, as do the cancer cells. The end state for this cancer, even with the above treatments, is usually tumors in the brain.
- riversflow 3y ago[flagged]
- StevePerkins 3y agoJesus.
- riversflow 3y ago[flagged]
- networkchad 3y ago[dead]
- dj_mc_merlin 3y agoPractice some empathy.
- LambdaComplex 3y ago> this one is prevalent in Asian women who have never smoked. Does that mean the rate is lower for Asian women who do smoke?
- hgomersall 3y agoMy understanding, though not by any means an expert, is that lung cancer that non smokers tend to get is different to that which smokers tend to get.
- agumonkey 3y agoIt's a great sight to see people outliving research protocols. Best wishes.
- hereme888 3y agoWould you be willing to share a few more details for me to understand? It would help me talk more concretely with my colleagues. So she had stage 4 lung cancer. "Is alive only because of this drug": - Was her life expectancy obviously prolonged? If so, by how much has she exceeded it so far? - Has the cancer progressed more slowly, halted, or regressed? Thanks.
- formercoder 3y agoI’m not completely read in to all the details but she told me prior to this drug her diagnoses was a “death sentence.” The lung cancer had metastasized throughout her bones. The indication was sudden lower body paralysis caused by a spinal tumor. She had spinal fusion surgery as well. I understand because it’s stage 4 she will never be in “remission” but it has regressed significantly.
- hereme888 3y agoThanks for sharing. At such an advanced stage and aggressive metastasis, for it to have regressed at all... wow. She must have been in so much pain.
- Spooky23 3y agoMy wife had stage 4 melanoma. Prior to the newish immunotherapies about 5 years ago, it was a death sentence — 6-9 months life expectancy from diagnosis. Now, it’s 60-70% 5 year survival rate. Unfortunately my wife wasn’t one of them. In general, these types of cancers spew mets and spread quickly. Many are resistant to chemo, go to the brain (chemo cannot help there) and only respond to high focused radiation like SRS or proton beam. Immunotherapies essentially suppress checkpoints that cancer cells use to avoid immune response and/or cause your body to target specific checkpoints. I can’t read FT.com, but I believe it’s talking about a targeted therapy that allows your body to control the cancer. There’s alot of research happening around things like immunotherapy combined with custom versions of Moderna and other vaccines that will significantly improve treatment and save people going through what my wife went through. It’s a good time.