Living Beyond Stage 4: Finding Hope Amidst Metastatic Breast Cancer

For many, a stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis can feels scary, but Casey Liening is rewriting that narrative. After a two-year struggle to be heard by doctors, Casey was diagnosed at 32 with metastatic disease that had already reached her bones. Today, she is thriving with no evidence of active disease (NED).

A dedicated advocate and new mother, Casey balances full-time work with a mission to ensure others don't face the same diagnostic hurdles. In this interview with CURE, she shares why stage 4 isn't a sentence, but a new chapter defined by science, hope, and resilience.

Transcript

What advice do you have for other patients with breast cancer facing a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer?

I would say that a stage 4 diagnosis is not the end. It does not have to be the end. It does not mean that there is no hope. It does not mean that we cannot live with breast cancer. I like to tell people that I am living with cancer, I am not dying from cancer. I'm not at the end of my cancer journey. I'm really simply just at the beginning of my journey. I'm three years in, and I feel better than I did the day I got diagnosed. So I just try to look at it that way, like thank God for science, and we can lean on the fact that medicine, simply by itself, is what has gotten me to a point where I have no evidence of active disease in my body, and that's my first line of treatment. And I know that we have a plan B, a Plan C, a Plan D, ready to go if and when this treatment stops working. Every year, we're getting more and more options too.

So, I would say to someone that's in my same boat, or maybe newly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, that you're still living with cancer, and it is possible to live for a long time with cancer, and it's not a death sentence. I know a lot of people told me that when I was first diagnosed, that, stage 4 means you're going to die, that it's a death sentence. It's not. It's absolutely not. I've met women along this journey that have lived with metastatic breast cancer for 25 years, and they're doing great. They're on the same line of treatment that I'm on currently. So that's my goal. I want to get 25 years out of this cancer, out of this treatment. So I would just say that there is still a lot of hope.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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