A 44-year-old mom felt out of breath while talking. It turns out she had stage 4 lung cancer, despite never smoking.

Key Points:

• Summer Farmen, a never-smoking mom of three from Pennsylvania, was diagnosed with stage four alk-positive lung cancer in early 2020, a rare genetic mutation-driven subtype that is highly treatable with targeted therapies.
• Despite an initial prognosis of six months to a year and a half, Farmen has survived and thrived for over six years thanks to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and precision cancer treatments that block tumor growth.
• Farmen found emotional support through alk-positive patient groups, which helped her cope with the physical and psychological challenges of cancer and inspired her to become an advocate for research and patient empowerment.
• She is now vice president of Alk Positive Inc., a nonprofit funding research and providing resources for patients, and contributed to a recent study on patient and caregiver treatment preferences published in the journal Lung Cancer.
• Farmen continues to manage ongoing side effects and regular scans while celebrating her survival milestone and using her experience to educate and support others facing this rare cancer.