Leah Phillips, co-founder of the Younger Lung Most cancers Initiative, had her life profoundly altered when she was identified with stage IV lung most cancers pushed by an EGFR exon 19 mutation. A never-smoker, Leah had no conventional threat elements and initially believed her analysis should have been a mistake. This expertise has fueled her advocacy, as she seeks to dispel the misunderstanding that lung most cancers solely impacts people who smoke or older adults.
“If in case you have lungs, you may develop lung most cancers,” she emphasised in an interview with CURE in the course of the 2025 IASCLC World Convention on Lung Most cancers (WCLC).
Through the interview, Leah discusses the significance of consciousness, encouraging each the general public and medical group to acknowledge persistent signs that will sign an underlying situation requiring additional analysis
Transcript
As a never-smoker, what do you would like extra folks understood about who might be affected by lung most cancers?
Actually, folks want to comprehend that in case you have lungs, you may get lung most cancers. After I was identified, I used to be dwelling in Kentucky, a tobacco state the place I’m from. My grandparents smoked from the time they had been 12. That is simply because they had been tobacco farmers, and that is what they did. It was such a standard factor in our society. My mother and father didn’t smoke, and I by no means smoked, however all people I knew who ever had lung most cancers had been a smoker and was older.
After I was first identified, and so they knew it was malignant most cancers, they had been making an attempt to determine the place it was coming from. When it got here again as lung most cancers, I assumed they had been within the improper room as a result of that they had led me to imagine it was going to be breast, colon, or ovarian most cancers given my well being standing, my age, and so forth.
I feel that’s my massive mission: letting others know which you could get lung most cancers even when you do not have threat elements. In my prior life as a instructor, I wasn’t working round harsh chemical substances, and we do not stay in an previous house. It was simply actually surreal to get that info and course of how this might occur.
That is the largest level and what’s been my driving drive: to let not solely folks with lung most cancers know this, but in addition researchers, medical doctors, and other people at giant by sharing my story. This manner, they will relate and be like, “Oh, so if I’ve a nagging cough or if I’ve wheezing, I should not simply take it without any consideration that it is a bit of chilly.”
Transcript has been edited for readability and conciseness.
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