Misdiagnosed for 2 Years Before a Lung Cancer Diagnosis in 2016

Nancy Pronsati, vice president of the board of ALK Positive, reflected on her lung cancer diagnosis in 2016 after years of misdiagnosed symptoms.

Pronsati explained in an interview with CURE that her journey began in 2014 with chronic bronchitis and a persistent cough, though because she was young and had never smoked, her doctors initially assumed it was infection-related. After running a half marathon in 2016 while coughing the entire time, her sister urged her to seek further medical care.

An X-ray revealed stage 4 lung cancer with numerous lesions in both lungs. Fortunately, her tissue was sent for biomarker testing, which identified ALK-positive lung cancer. Since then, she has been treated with a targeted therapy known as a TKI (tyrosine kinase inhibitor).

Transcript

You were finally diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016. What has your journey been like for you?

I started in about 2014, which is weird for me to think that [far] back. I started to have chronic bronchitis and coughing, and because at the time I was relatively young and had never been a smoker, they just assumed it was pneumonia, bronchitis or various kinds of chronic infections. I took a lot of antibiotics, and then finally in 2016 I ran a half marathon — which I say “ran,” that’s kind of an exaggeration of what I did — but I completed a half marathon, which I used to do pretty frequently. I was coughing through the whole thing, and I was with my sister, and she said, “You know, you need to go [see] a doctor.”

I was seeing doctors, but there wasn’t a lot of familiarity at that time with lung cancer in younger people who also had never smoked. Finally, this particular doctor sent me for an X-ray, and I already had stage 4 lung cancer and innumerable lesions on both lungs. I was very fortunate to be at a great hospital where they sent my tissue out for biomarker testing right away, and I was lucky enough to have ALK-positive lung cancer. I’ve been on a TKI ever since.

I have been one of the extremely lucky people. I think a lot of the oncologists call it “good, ALK,” just because I have had a very long run on TKIs.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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