Biomarkers & me: a patient’s journey to personalized cancer care

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Hi, my name is Bev, and I live in Toronto, Ontario.

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Several years ago,

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I had two lingering colds six months apart.

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Several years ago, I had two lingering colds six months apart.

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The second cold, I was coughing so much,

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I thought I had strep throat.

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I booked an appointment with my family doctor.

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And she fortunately

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ordered a chest x-ray as part of her examination.

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That decision of hers likely saved my life.

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At the end of various tests,

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my husband and I met with the doctor,

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and he gave us the diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer.

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We knew something was very serious,

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but we were definitely not expecting stage 4 lung cancer

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or to be told that this would kill me.

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It was a shock because I’ve always been healthy

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and I’m a never smoker.

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Once we had the diagnosis,

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the doctor ordered a biomarker test,

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a tissue biopsy, to clarify

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what was the particular mutation that I had.

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It’s really important to know early in the cancer journey

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what the particular biomarker is.

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It is part of the trend towards precision medicine

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and provides the opportunity to give the best

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and most appropriate treatment

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for the particular biomarker.

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We got the results of the biomarker testing,

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and the doctors were really pleased to tell us

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that I had an actionable mutation.

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At the time, I didn’t understand

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what they were talking about.

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But I realized that they were able to select a

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targeted therapy for me that was specific

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to my particular mutation.

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When other people are in a similar situation,

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I think it’s really important that they

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appreciate the value of having a

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biopsy to determine their biomarker.

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When I learned more about

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targeted therapy and precision medicine,

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I realized that I was very fortunate

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to have had the test,

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let alone to have a targeted therapy

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specific to my type of cancer.

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The biomarker testing

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was the best thing that was done for me.

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It’s given me a high quality of life

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for a lot longer than they predicted.