Personal Stories

Nonsmoker Charmaine Atkenson's Lung Cancer Story

Charmaine Atkenson

When I was a little girl one of my favorite popular songs was The Impossible Dream from Don Quixote: Man of LaMancha. When I was diagnosed with stage iv lung cancer in September 2006 I thought, somewhat amusedly, what an appropriate favorite song it was.

My diagnosis at 46 years of age came from out of the blue. I was wife to my college sweetheart, mom to two beautiful daughters and an adorable Yorkshire terrier, active at my church and President of the PTO. I had never smoked, never lived with a smoker, or worked in a smoke-filled environment. I have no family history of cancer. Most of my ancestors and relatives live long lives, into their 90's, 100 and beyond. I was diagnosed after sustaining a spontaneous burst fracture of my 10th thoracic vertebra while sitting on our family room couch watching the original "Jaws" movie. It was my first and only symptom of lung cancer.

In the week prior to my spine surgery I was in the hospital on physician ordered bedrest. Each day a young oncologist would come in and talk to me about the various tests I had. He told me "You have metastatic breast cancer; but don't worry, we know so much about breast cancer I can practically guarantee you a normal life expectancy. Right now, I can practically guarantee you twenty years, and within that twenty years I will be able to give you another twenty years." Three days after surgery to repair my fractured spine, pathology results revealed that I had metastatic lung cancer and the same oncologist told me "I'm sorry; you don't have metastatic breast cancer. You have metastatic lung cancer and you have about 4 to 6 months to live." Happily, he was wrong. It has been more than 2 ½ years since my diagnosis and I still feel perfectly healthy. My doctor calls me a miracle girl. I agree. I credit novel, continuous, aggressive chemotherapy, radiation therapy, the use of radiopharmaceuticals, the love, support, and prayers of family and friends, and the Divine Mercy of God for the extraordinary results I have had in keeping lung cancer at bay and for tolerating treatment without side effects.

I have received some form of systemic treatment continuously since my diagnosis. Initially my treatment was Paclitaxil, Carboplatin and concurrent radiation. My second line treatment was Tarceva, Zometa, and curative intent external beam radiation. Next was Alimta, Avastin, Zometa and curative intent external beam radiation. After that was Taxotere, Cisplatin, Avastin, Zometa and Erbitux and curative intent external beam radiation. Next in line was Alimta, Avastin, Erbitux, Zometa, curative intent external beam radiation and Samarium, a radiopharmaceutical. Most recently the drugs have been Erbitux, Cisplatin, Avastin, Zometa and curative intent external beam radiation. Soon I will have another Samarium treatment. I have chosen to aggressively battle my cancer because I have tolerated the treatments without side effects and the combinations have been effective at keeping my tumor burden low. New advances are made in the fight against cancer everyday. It is my goal to live long enough to benefit from them.

I live every day joyfully and with gratitude for the blessings of each day. An optimist, I believe that anyone alive today with even Stage IV lung cancer has a chance to see lung cancer become a chronic disease and eventually cured.

I am particularly delighted to learn of the partnership between the Canary Foundation and the National Cancer Institute to develop an effective diagnostic blood screening test for never smokers. Lung cancer is a deadly disease because, it is often symptomless in early stages. Because it is so closely associated with smoking, most physicians don't consider never smokers at risk for lung cancer, so chest x-rays or CT scans aren't prescribed for screening as they might be for smokers or former smokers. Additionally, because lung cancer is so closely associated with smoking, funding for disease specific research is scant. Most lung cancers, particularly those of never smokers, are diagnosed when the disease is incurable. Development of a blood test will enable lung cancer in never smokers to be diagnosed in earlier stages when the possibility of a cure exists. The test didn't exist in time for my lung cancer to be diagnosed early, but it will be for others, someday. Hopefully, that someday won't be long in coming.

I keep a blog at www.caringbridge.org/visit/charmaine.

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