A year before a chest x-ray revealed cloudiness in her right lung, Sue asked her doctor about her occasional dry cough.
“There are lots of reasons for a cough”, the doctor said.
Once you’ve used Treatment Option A and Treatment Option B, what’s next? It’s because of research that once something stops working, there is another option.
A year later, in December of 2022, she returned to the doctor. After two or more weeks, they did a chest X-ray, looking for potential pneumonia.
That led to a CT scan, a PET scan, a biopsy, and a visit to an oncologist who said, “You have stage IIIc lung cancer.” Since her diagnosis in January 2023, she has had radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy treatments.
Just when she thought the quality of her life was nearly back to normal, she experienced vertigo, nausea, and loss of hearing in her left ear. After two or three weeks of worsening symptoms, she called her oncologist, who immediately ordered a brain MRI. The tests revealed not one tumor, but five in her brain, the largest being 1.9685 inches near her brain stem.
“I want to go to Mayo.” Her doctor agreed.
Ten days later, Sue headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where a team of doctors performed gamma knife surgery to eradicate her brain tumors. A genetic test revealed a mutation of the KRAS gene — bad news and good news.
Upon returning home, she began a targeted therapy drug called Adagrasib, commonly known as Krazati.”
None of these options would have been available for Sue without continued investment in Cancer research. Sue continues to use her voice to advocate for further investment in research.