Glenna is a wife, mother, grandmother, and avid traveler… and she is living with lung cancer.
Her story started in December 2022, when she developed a nagging cough. She wasn’t especially worried, since she had been given a diagnosis of silent reflex some 8 years earlier. By March, however, the cough was getting worse.
She met with her primary care provider, who adjusted her medication. But 4 weeks later, her symptoms hadn’t improved. This time, she was referred to a specialist for reflux.
Then Glenna and her husband took an Alaskan cruise, and Glenna became very sick. Upon returning in June, she felt terrible and had severe pain in her shoulder blade. Nothing abnormal was found, but at that point Glenna hadn’t had a chest X-ray.
In late June, Glenna had quite a scare. “We were at home, and I told my husband he needed to take me to the ER immediately, because I couldn’t breathe.” The ER visit revealed a 9 cm mass in her lung, and she was admitted to the hospital for four days.
Glenna finally had a diagnosis: stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. Her first-line chemotherapy treatment unfortunately failed. But a blood and tissue biopsy for biomarker testing after her initial diagnosis confirmed that her cancer had the HER2 mutation.
In September 2023, she began a targeted treatment, Enhertu. Glenna has continued on this treatment, and her status is officially NED – no evidence of disease.
Glenna and her husband have continued to travel throughout her diagnosis. “We had a lot of trips this summer, and we’re still planning more,” she said. “My family has been a great source of support through my treatment.”
“I’m glad I had testing done at the beginning, because it helped avoid a delay in care after my first-line treatment failed. I was relieved to have the additional information, as I knew it would give me options for targeted treatment for the HER2 mutation.”
> Learn about biomarker testing for HER2 and other genetic mutations
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