A Two-week Turnaround

Amy Grove found hope through research.

In December 2018, on my 47th birthday, I was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous non-small cell lung cancer. The first-line treatment was immunotherapy. After three infusions, I was in a wheelchair, wearing diapers, sleeping 23 hours a day, breaking bones, and in incredible pain. I had hyper-progression.

As I was getting ready to tell my oncologist that I wanted to go on hospice, he said, “Your biomarker testing came back, and even though it’s rare to have a targetable mutation in squamous, you have one.” I started on an oral targeted therapy, and within a week, all of the physical lumps—the visible form of my metastasis—were gone. Within two weeks, I was out of the wheelchair, no longer wearing diapers, and the immense bone pain was gone.

Without research and my oncologist’s decision to test for biomarkers at that time, I wouldn’t be here.

I’m now seven years stable and thriving. There is hope!

Whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver, or loved one touched by cancer, your story can have an enormous impact. You can provide hope and inspiration to someone recently diagnosed with cancer or a patient undergoing therapy.