Healthy 36-Year-Old Woman Who Never Smoked is Diagnosed With Stage 4 Lung Cancer
She was 30 weeks pregnant, when Samantha Bladwell from Brisbane, Australia noticed something wrong and a visit to her doctor led to some shocking news.
She, who had never lit a cigarette in her entire life, was informed of her 'total shock' after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
Known as a healthy woman, now 36-year-old Baldwell was pregnant with her second baby when she became breathless. Reports said she put the experience down to stress, "And a symptom of her pregnancy."
After feeling and experiencing such, this mom decided to go visit her doctor, just in case, following having breathing problems while she was having a marketing presentation.
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Samantha Bladwell, who had never lit a cigarette in her entire life, was informed of her ‘total shock’ after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
Stage 4 Lung Cancer
What Bladwell discovered from her doctor left her whirling, and her family shocked. Following a CT scan, as well as an invasive biopsy, the 36-year-old was, as earlier mentioned, diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
In an interview with The Courier-Mail, she shared, cancer had spread to both her lungs and spine. It has also spread to her brain.
Tests showed the then-pregnant woman, who has adenocarcinoma, the most typical lung cancer among female individuals and non-smokers, had mutations in her EGFR or epidermal growth factor receptor.
Report on her case indicated that other gene mutations that could benefit from targeted treatment which includes anaplastic lymphoma kinase or ALK and Ros1.
The cancer-stricken mom added, people assume, if one has lung cancer, "You smoke, so it's your fault." But in her case, she never smoked a stick of cigar or any kind, all her life.
The truth is, she told the news outlet, anyone with longs is possible to get lung cancer. "No one deserves to have a lit. It's horrible," she said.
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A Wake-Up Call
Her diagnosis was a real wake-up call her to know that if one has lungs, she can get lung cancer. Treatment started the day she delivered her baby although it stopped working after nearly a year as her cells turned out to be "resistant to the therapy."
To date, Bladwell has joined the Oscillate test as a second form of therapy. She knows if it does not succeed, she would need to move on to chemotherapy.
She exclaimed, there is a disgrace which impacts fundraising initiatives for studies into lifesaving therapies. She also said the vision in other people's minds is that the person who has cancer is the one who has brought it to himself. Thus, why would they care funding any study into lung cancer?
It is really a challenge to change people's minds, Bladwell said, and that is why she is sharing her story. She added, "It's not the case and even if it was, no one deserves to have lung cancer."
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Oct 19, 2020 09:00 AM EDT
