My Mum has just been diagnosed with lung cancer, also a non-smoker, unfortunately now it seems there are as many if not more people being diagnosed with lung cancer that have never smoked if you read the articles. Mum had an EBUS procedure to take biopsies from lymph nodes after a 4cm tumour was shown in a CT Scan. Cancer in right lung and lymph nodes, possible cancer in left lung and left lymph nodes clear. Appointment with Oncologist 10th March. My Mum's cancer was tested and a marker was shown that she has EGFR mutation which 10% of people have with lung cancer, so they are starting Mum on a targeted chemo tablet to take daily at home called Osimertinib, it supposedly works well at controlling cancer with this mutation.
Do you know what stage cancer you have? Mum has not been officially told yet but we think stage 4 and possibly advanced, we know they said its incurable because its spread to lymph nodes and both lungs. From 5 years ago they knew she had chronic right upper lobe changes and she had a biopsy in left lung (it was clear at time) but because the right lobe changes didnt change for 2 years they stopped the Ct Scans altogether, I feel she was neglected there because if they had kept a yearly check on that right lung it would have prevented it spreading to lymph nodes.
Hope you are getting a treatment plan put in place and finding you have a good support from the hospital. We are here if you need support. take care.
Hi, I was diagnosed with stage 3 non small cell lung cancer in April 2021. It was in my left lung upper lobe. It had grown from 7mm to 66 x 47mm between Dec 2020 & April 2021. Surgery wasn't an option as it had attached itself to my chest wall. By June I began treatment which was 2 high doses of chemo & 6 week of radiotherapy. The radiotherapy isn't painful itself but about 5 weeks into treatment it was painful and sore to swallow that lasted for about 4 weeks. I was sick a bit. It's very scary when you are diagnosed not just for yourself but I felt it for my husband and children too and natural to think the worst but I found it best to stay positive. It's horrible to go through but you will get through it. That treatment ended early august, late august I began treatment on a clinical trial to stop it returning. I have just had my 8th dose of 13. I have ct scans every 8 weeks. The tumour after chemo/radio shrunk approx 40% which is fantastic. The rest of it is dead tissue. My outlook on life has obviously changed. I took part in the race for life in October with 8 of my friends & raised £3800. I'm off to Vegas soon, it was something for me to look forward to & definitely a motivator to get through it. I'm 53 petrified of heights but am going on a zip wire that's 11 storeys high, doing the skywalk in the Grand Canyon & a day trip to LA. When it's over my best advice is just to live your life by looking forward. Sending positive thoughts & wishes x
