LISA’S STORY
Did you know that anyone with lungs,
including non-smokers, can get lung cancer?
In 2019, 48 year old Lisa Scibilia of Massachusetts, a wife and mom of three who was active and healthy, started experiencing shortness of breath and a cough that wouldn’t go away. Within a month life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer caused by a mutation in the ALK gene, known as ALK positive (ALK+). Like many other people with ALK+ lung cancer, Lisa was initially misdiagnosed (in her case, with pneumonia) because she was a non-smoker without other common risk factors. By the time Lisa was diagnosed, the lung cancer had spread to her brain and bones.
ALK+ lung cancer has no known cure. At the time of Lisa’s diagnosis the survival rate for Stage IV lung cancer was a dismal 3 years.
Thankfully, testing positive for the ALK gene mutation turned out to be a good thing because scientists have developed oral targeted therapy drugs for this specific gene that shrink or stall the cancer growth and give patients more time (read more about genomic testing here). While eventually all current ALK+ drugs fail and progression occurs, the availability of these treatments gave Lisa and her family hope that they would have years ahead together.
Less than two weeks after diagnosis, Lisa started a clinical trial combining an approved ALK+ drug with a second drug initially developed for treatment of melanomas. Researchers hope this drug combination will offer a slower rate of progression. Over four years later, Lisa is still on this original treatment protocol, responding extraordinarily well and feeling so grateful for each and every day.
