Susan,
Welcome here. I am so sorry I am late responding to your welcome post. I've had a trying week. But then, so have you.
You are a 41 year old, never smoker, diagnosed with stage IV, unspecified type, lung cancer with mets to your spine. Memorial Day weekend was no fun. So, here is the bottom line up front. You are wondering what are your changes of surviving this mayhem. I'd say about as good as mine. I had a horrible journey from diagnoses through no evidence of disease (NED) #1, to NED #2, to NED #3 to NED #4. Four recurrences from my diagnosis date of February 4, 2003 through my current NED date of March 7, 2007. If I can live, so can you. Oh by the way, since you are alive after diagnosis, you are officially a lung cancer survivor! Welcome to our club!
When things in your life settle down a bit, we'll need to know more information about your lung cancer to help you understand and cope with what is ahead treatment wise. Lung cancer comes in different in two basic types: small cell, and non small cell. Non small cell has three major sub types: adenocarcinoma, squamous cell, and large cell. You can and should read about lung cancer types here. If you've had your biopsy, the pathology report will identify your type. Let us know if you are comfortable revealing the information.
If you are stage 4, then surgery is generally not an option. Fifteen years ago, your situation would have been bleak. Now however, believe it or not, your treatment and outcome expectations have real success opportunities. There are so many new treatments from precision radiation to immunotherapy to targeted therapy. (I've hyperlinked each new treatment so you can read about it.) Then we have new clinical trials that are showing very promising results. Once we know your type of cancer, we can suggest trials but to wet your appetite, read this about exciting new trials underway at the National Cancer Institute as but one example. So, there is more than hope for you; there is a meaningful probability of extended life. How long? I'm still counting.
You are not alone. We've been down the path you are on. We will help you navigate treatment and share our tips and tricks.
Read into our disease. Knowledge provides the power to ask the "terribly preceptive questions" of your treatment team. We are part of your knowledge base. Ask us questions. I dare say we have a full spectrum of survivors on board who stand ready to lend their support.
Please try and not consult Dr. Google about survival statistics. They don't mean much these days because they are based on outdated information and do not reflect the survival impacts of new treatments. Moreover, they are very weekly constructed statistical data with uncontrolled inputs and unknown outputs. By that I mean that only age, type, stage, date of diagnosis, race and gender are inputs to the national data base for everyone diagnosed. But no medical history is included so someone could have say heart problems and that symptom would not be included in the data. Moreover, there is very little information on the cause of death, when death occurs. A survivor could be hit by a bus and it still counts as a statistical death by lung cancer. So for a lot of reasons, steer well clear of Dr. Google and his take on survival statistics. If you are interested in understanding the shortfalls of medical statistics, listen to this essay by Dr. Stephen J. Gould.
I know this is a lot to take in but take your time, read in, and ask your questions.
Stay the course.
Tom
