Understanding Lung Cancer
- Tiffany Job, a mom of two who never smoked, is spreading awareness for lung cancer after she was diagnosed with stage four, non-small cell lung cancer at 37 years old. Her first symptoms were shortness of breath and a cough. Now she’s undergoing targeted therapy in her fight against the disease.
- There are two main types of lung cancer, which doctors group together based on how they act and how they’re treated: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type and makes up about 85% of cases. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is less common, but it tends to grow faster than NSCLC and is treated very differently.
- The EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), which Job has, is a protein in cells that helps them grow. If there’s a mistake in the gene for EGFR, it can make it grow too much, leading to cancer.
- Treating lung cancer depends on the cancer’s location and how advanced it is. Treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy, or a combination of any of these treatments.
- For help finding a clinical trial that’s right for you, try our easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder.
Explaining her cancer fight on Ten for Ten Million‘s website, Job writes, “At 37 years old, in the best physical shape of my life, lung cancer was the last thing I ever expected when I began experiencing shortness of breath in the fall of 2020. But after a complicated bronchoscopy, a lengthy hospital visit and dozens of tests, the results were conclusive: advanced non-small cell adenocarcinoma.View this post on Instagram
“I never smoked. I maintained a healthy diet. I exercised constantly. As a Registered Nurse and part‐time Pilates instructor, I was more proactive than most when it came to managing my own health and well-being. Yet cancer found me. It found me in the prime of my life. It found me with two beautiful kids and a loving husband.”
After warning to those reading her story that “cancer does not discriminate,” she continued, “As I learned more about my own cancer, I quickly realized how much progress has been made in recent years, particularly in the treatment of lung cancer. Significant breakthroughs are happening at a rate previously not imagined.”
Job explained further, “In my case, I have responded well to molecular targeting drugs, which are taken by pill and attack the specific genetic mutation that causes my cancer.
“At the time of my diagnosis, my lung function was declining so quickly that I required supplemental oxygen just to perform basic tasks. After 10 months of treatment, I am back to exercising and chasing my boys, and even jogging at least a mile per day. ”
When Job was diagnosed, she learned that her cancer had already metastasized [spread] to her pelvis, right femur, and cervical spine.
Job has since revealed in an Instagram post, shared on Sept. 6, 2025, that her chemotherapy treatment has since stopped working for her, noting that her “primary tumor began to increase in size again,” and her doctors’ new plan is for her to undergo a targeted therapy called, “amivantamab. Ami for short.”
RELATED: Lung Cancer — The Nuances of Mutations & Targeted Therapies
She concluded on her website, “My cancer diagnosis does not define me. I refuse to let it. But it does drive me. It drives me to be a better person and a more present mom and wife. And it drives me to share the hope I feel every day, not just with those who are fighting for their lives, but with those who soon will be.
“Above all, the message I want to spread is that we are all on borrowed time. Live freely and choose happiness, and don’t wait until it’s too late to contribute to something so important.”
Helping Patients Better Understand Lung Cancer
- Diagnosing Lung Cancer and Determining Treatment
- In Diagnosing Lung Cancer, The Symptoms Often Come Late
- Targeted Gene Therapy and Lung Cancer Treatment– The Hope In ALK Positivity
- Understanding Stage Four Lung Cancer
- Radiation May Help In Certain Cases of Stage Four Lung Cancer
- Patients Beware: People Are Mistaking Lung Cancer Symptoms for Covid-19
- Steps To Take After Receiving Your Lung Cancer Diagnosis
- More Treatment Options for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Help Turn Patients into Survivors
Job also pointed out in her most recent Instagram post that she is now on a biweekly treatment schedule and was awaiting results of another PET scan to see whether the new treatment was working.
“Big prayers that it is please,” she urged her followers, adding, “Thank you for the continued prayers. They mean more to me than words can express.”
Throughout Job’s battle with the disease, she also learned while undergoing various tests to obtain her cancer diagnosis that she had an EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) gene mutation, which has affected her treatment plans and the clinical trials she has joined.
View this post on Instagram
For anyone battling cancer, like herself, Jobs said in a recent interview with The Patient Story, “Lean into your people. I mean, your family, friends, community, whomever you trust, and just accept help. I think that’s been the hardest part for me. I’m pretty independent, and I like to do things for myself.
“Allowing people to help you is huge. You can’t do it all. … Over time, we’ve had so many conversations, and one of the things that is so important to me is that we don’t leave this earth without making an impression. This guy [her husband Nick] thought about that hardcore. He came up with a really great thing, so we started a nonprofit, which gives us a lot of meaning behind all of this, too.”
Understanding Your Type of Lung Cancer
Lung cancer forms when cancer cells develop in the tissues of the lung. It is the second most common form of cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the U.S., SurvivorNet experts say.
It’s “completely asymptomatic,” says thoracic surgeon-in-chief at Temple University Health System Dr. Joseph Friedberg. “It causes no issues until it has spread somewhere. So, if it spreads to the bones, it may cause pain. If it spreads to the brain, it may cause something not subtle, like a seizure.”
WATCH: Detecting lung cancer in the absence of symptoms.
Scans such as X-rays can help doctors determine if a shadow appears, which can prompt further testing for lung cancer.
There are two main types of lung cancer, which doctors group together based on how they act and how they’re treated: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type and makes up about 85% of cases. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is less common, but it tends to grow faster than NSCLC and is treated very differently.
The EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) is a protein in cells that helps them grow. If there’s a mistake in the gene for EGFR, it can make it grow too much, leading to cancer.
Metastatic cancer means that the disease has spread to distant parts of the body. We understand this diagnosis can be really intimidating, but treatment options are ever-evolving.
Understanding DNA mutations: What does EGFR mean?
DNA is the genetic code of your cell, or the blueprint. Everything your cells make to keep them alive and functioning is all stored in the DNA. Normally, there are checkpoints and safeguards in your cells that identify changes in the DNA in order to correct them. This can be through either fixing the DNA change or mutation itself, or killing the cell if the DNA change or damage is too difficult to fix.
When enough of certain parts of the DNA are mutated and not fixed by your cells’ protective mechanisms, this can result in unregulated growth and division of the cells which can result in cancer.
There are some drugs available that can target these specific DNA mutations — or medications that doctors know are very effective against these changes. Just as cancers that arise in various parts of the body are different, common DNA mutations that cause these cancers can also be different, resulting in different medications to target these DNA mutations.
The following are the most common mutations that have FDA-approved targeted treatment options already:
- EGFR
- ALK
- ROS1
- BRAF
- KRAS
- MET
- HER2
- RET
- NTRK
The EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) is a protein in cells that helps them grow. If there’s a mistake in the gene for EGFR, it can make it grow too much, leading to cancer.
EGFR is like a switch on the cell that when activated tells the cell to grow. When EGFR mutates it is constantly turned on, which means the cell grows too much. This can result in cancer growth.
What is Molecular Testing and Next-Generation Sequencing?
If your lung cancer has a mutation in EGFR, it is called an EGFR-mutated lung cancer or EGFR-positive lung cancer, which is a specific subtype. This can affect treatment options and also tells us how the cancer typically behaves.
There are several types of EGFR mutations and they do tend to be more common in specific subsets of patients.
Smoking and Lung Cancer Risk
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women in the United States. Nonsmokers still get lung cancer, but cigarette smoking is the number one risk factor for the disease. Tobacco smoke contains a mixture of more than 7,000 different chemicals, at least 70 of which are known to cause cancer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.
The CDC says cigarette smoking is linked to about 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, and people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who don’t smoke. Additionally, second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer.
Former & Current Heavy Smokers Should Get Lung Cancer Screenings Using CT Scan, Says Leading Expert
Smoking is, of course, the primary cause of lung cancer, but nonsmokers, like Tiffany Job, can and do develop this disease.
Researchers have made progress in understanding the differences between lung cancer in smokers versus nonsmokers, says Dr. Ronald Natale, a medical oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and they’re developing targeted treatments that will be able to address the genetic drivers of lung cancer in nonsmokers.
“Among patients who are nonsmokers, or former very light smokers, we identify a mutation that we can target with pills in about 60% to 70% of them. That leaves 30% or so, 40%, in whom we either have a target for which we do not have successful treatment,” Dr. Ronald Natale, a medical oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet.
“Among patients who are smokers, who have more complex cancers that have hundreds, sometimes thousands of mutations, don’t have a driver mutation that we can give a pill for, which is only a tiny percentage of lifelong smokers. Chemotherapy is the primary treatment in most patients,” Dr. Natale explains further.
Understanding the treatment options for lung cancer.
Navigating Clinical Trials
Clinical trials can be an option for people with cancer at many points during the treatment process. Your doctor may have spoken with you about possibly enrolling in a trial if you have advanced disease or if there’s a drug that’s currently considered investigational that may work better than the standard for you.
A lot of patients may feel uncomfortable about the thought of participating in a trial, but the trials can provide amazing opportunities for patients. For one thing, they give patients access to a bevy of new drugs that are currently being developed by pharmaceutical companies.
Things to Consider
In the U.S., all new drugs have to go through clinical trials before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will approve them. In addition to being potentially live-saving for patients, these trials are also necessary to advance science and cancer treatments.
However, participating in a trial comes with risks as well, and it’s important to talk to your doctor about this before getting involved in one. Some risks to consider are:
- The risk of harm and/or side effects due to experimental treatments
- Researchers may be unaware of some potential side effects for experimental treatments
- The treatment may not work for you, even if it has worked for others
Still, joining a clinical trial comes with benefits as well. You will be given access to treatments that could be life-saving, but simply haven’t made it through the approval process yet.
If you’re looking for a clinical trial, SurvivorNet can help. Check out SurvivorNet’s Clinical Trial Finder.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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