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Lung Cancer Researcher Diagnosed With Stage 4 Disease Despite Never Smoking: 'I Never Thought I Would Have This'

Dr. Bryant Lin, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer despite never smoking

Lin has dedicated a lot of his career to researching the disease

"Getting a cancer diagnosis is horrible. I went through the stages of grief several times when I was diagnosed. However, I'm grateful that 99.99 percent of my life has been positive," the professor tells PEOPLE

Stanford University School of Medicine clinical professor and researcher Dr. Bryant Lin has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer despite never smoking in his life.

The oncologist, per the Stanford Medicine blog Scope, was diagnosed with non-small cell cancer — also known as never-smoker lung cancer — in early May, around a month before his 50th birthday.

Lin, who is the co-founder of Stanford's Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE), has dedicated a lot of his career to researching lung cancer specifically among Asian American non-smokers, The Stanford Daily reported.

"I never would've thought that I would have this cancer, or become the poster child for my center working on this cancer," Lin told Yahoo! Life.

Bryant Lin.

Stanford University

Speaking with the outlet, Lin detailed his road to diagnosis. He first experienced lingering cough and a tight throat for around five or six weeks over spring.

Asking for advice from an ear, nose and throat (ENT) physician colleague, Lin was encouraged to have a chest X-ray. The X-ray "showed opacity in the lungs, indicating infection or cancer," according to Yahoo! Life. Lin then had a CT scan and a bronchoscopy to examine his lung tissue.

Less than two weeks later, Lin received a diagnosis and began treatment.

"Getting a cancer diagnosis is horrible. I went through the stages of grief several times when I was diagnosed. However, I'm grateful that 99.99 percent of my life has been positive," the professor told PEOPLE.

"This 0.01 percent of my life sucks but I consider myself, in the words of [Lou] Gehrig, the Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth," he added while referencing the baseball player's famous 1939 New York Yankees farewell speech.

Dr. Heather Wakelee, Stanford's chief of oncology — who studies lung cancer in people who have never smoked — has been among those treating Lin. "I can just call people up and say, 'Let's get this done,' " he told Yahoo! Life.

According to Scope, 15 to 20 percent of people diagnosed with lung cancer are non-smokers. The diagnosis "is the result of a gene mutation that disproportionately affects those of Asian descent, particularly women."

"About 50% of nonsmoker Asians [with lung cancer] have this mutation, and less than 20% of non-Hispanic whites have it," Lin told Yahoo! Life. "We don't really know why Asians get this mutation more than other groups."

A stock photo of a doctor inspecting an X-ray image.

Getty

According to the American Cancer Society, "Lung cancers in people who don't smoke are often different from those that occur in people who do. They tend to develop in younger people and often have certain gene changes that are different from those in tumors found in people who smoke. In some cases, these gene changes can be used to guide treatment."

Lin told Yahoo! Life he's taking "a relatively new daily pill, called Osimertinib, which attacks the mutated cancer cells," and targets the cancer with fewer side effects because it's so "precise."

"I feel great, and I'm lucky that I'm doing so well clinically and in terms of quality of life," he said to the outlet.

The researches still has to undergo more chemotherapy every few weeks. "The downside is that eventually, the cancer can develop resistance to this targeted treatment," Lin added to the publication. 

He went on to say that he's been given advice from a former colleague also diagnosed with cancer, "He said, 'You just have to live long enough for the next treatment to work,' " Lin recalled to Yahoo! Life.

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Lin has been teaching a class named "MED 275: From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor's Real-Time Battle with Cancer."

In the class, he told students about a letter he'd received from an elderly patient with chronic kidney disease, in which the patient thanked Lin for "taking such good care" of him. "That letter arrived two weeks after the man's death ... Which means that he spent time in his final hours writing a letter for me," Lin said, per Scope.

"I'm not sure how long I have. One year? Two years? Five years?" the professor told students. "In a way, this class is part of my letter — what I'm doing to give back to my community as I go through this."

Lin added to PEOPLE of how well-received his class has been, "I've been overwhelmed by the response from the students, colleagues and community. It's been rewarding to see how impactful the class has been. I've taught many classes and have never seen students so engaged and supportive."

State Of Lung Cancer 2024: Highest Survival Rates In Rhode Island, Massachusetts

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, 25% percent of all cancers are actually related to lung cancer deaths," said Dr. Hina Khan, a researcher who specializes in lung cancer treatments at Brown University Health.

For those living in New England, and particularly in Rhode Island, the report from the American Lung Cancer is promising.

"The state of lung cancer for 2024 reports that the five year survival rates for anyone diagnosed within the state of Rhode Island is 33.2%," said Khan.

That means one in three people diagnosed are either being cured, or are living longer.

"And that's significantly higher than the national average. The national average is about 28%, so we are clearly seeing that people are living longer with lung cancers in the state of Rhode Island," said Khan.

One reason, she says, people are living longer in the Ocean State is this:

"We have one of the highest lung cancer screening rates, actually the highest in the country," said Khan.

That screening involves a low dose CT scan.

"We have one of the highest early diagnosis rates. Thirty-five percent of people diagnosed in the state of Rhode Island actually have stage one or two cancer, so we're picking these up early," said Khan.

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For those with advanced cancers, Khan says 15 states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, require insurance to cover what's known as biomedical marker testing.

"That allows for us to identify targets for personalized treatments and targeted therapies," said Khan.

Bottom line for those at high risk starts with screening.

"Just alone with lung cancer screening, we can reduce the chances of lung cancer deaths by 20%," said Khan.

Lung cancer screening is recommended for people 50 and older with a history of smoking.

What that means is if you have smoked a pack a day for the last 20 years, or two packs a day for the last 10 years, you qualify.

The report also looked at racial disparities. Black, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islanders and Indigenous peoples are less likely to not only be diagnosed early but to receive surgical treatment or any treatment.

This report serving as a call to action to push for better education, access and care.

What To Know About Lung Cancer That Has Spread To The Brain

How Brain Metastases From Lung Cancer Are Treated

If diagnosed and treated early, brain metastases usually respond to therapy. Your treatment plan will depend on your tumors (size, number, location in the brain, and genetic characteristics); the extent of disease outside the brain; and your overall health. Treatment may include:

Surgery Surgery may be an option for people with only one or two brain metastases that are easy to access and remove. It may also work for people who have a larger tumor that's causing compressive symptoms, and removing even a portion of the tumor may help alleviate symptoms. According to a review, surgery is commonly followed by radiation therapy.

Radiation This therapy uses X-rays or other high-energy beams to kill cancer cells. Different methods of radiation are used to treat brain metastases.

People who have smaller brain tumors or tumors that are not surgically accessible or are too advanced for neurosurgery may be good candidates for stereotactic radiosurgery, in which MRIs, CT scans, and computer guidance are used to deliver large doses of radiation directly to tumors.

[5] "This approach can effectively treat metastases with little radiation exposure to other parts of the brain and with minimal side effects," says Dr. Goldman.

If you have many tumors throughout your brain or a large tumor deep in the brain, your doctor may recommend whole-brain radiation, in which radiation is applied to the entire brain to kill tumor cells.

[6] "This method," Goldman explains, "treats the whole area but, unfortunately, comes with more side effects, such as headache, fatigue, nausea, hair loss, and some slowed cognition."

Systemic Therapy With systemic therapies, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy, drugs travel through the bloodstream to reach cancer cells throughout the body.

Because many chemotherapy drugs are unable to cross the blood-brain barrier — a network of capillaries that keeps certain substances from reaching the brain — targeted therapy is the primary form used to treat brain metastases, according to a journal article.

[7]

Targeted therapies can identify and attack specific cancer cells with minimal harm to normal cells. For people with lung cancer cells that have specific mutations (such as EGFR and ALK), these therapies can be highly effective.

But if your lung cancer doesn't carry these specific mutations or has spread elsewhere in the body, your doctor may consider other systemic therapies, such as immunotherapy (which uses medicine to activate your own immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells) or chemotherapy.

Palliative Care This type of specialized medical care can include pain management, mental health counseling, spiritual support, and stress management techniques. It's a key component of treatment for patients with metastatic NSCLC.

[8]

Palliative care can help mitigate the side effects of both the cancer and its treatment and significantly improve quality of life. Information and support are available for people with lung cancer and their families at Go2 for Lung Cancer, the American Cancer Society, and the Global Resource for Advancing Cancer Education (GRACE).

Looking Ahead: After Brain Metastases Treatment

After radiation, surgery, or systemic treatment for brain metastases, your doctor will most likely order an MRI to determine how much of the tumor is gone and then follow up with MRIs every few months.

The prognosis for people with NSCLC that's metastasized to the brain is highly variable, so it's important to keep in mind that statistics don't necessarily pertain to your situation. While the outlook was traditionally poor for people with NSCLC and brain metastases, advancements in treatment are continually improving survival rates.

Clinical trials are regularly being conducted to find ways to improve treatment for people with NSCLC that's metastasized to the brain. Ask your doctor whether you may be a candidate for such a trial. You can also search for a clinical trial in your area at ClinicalTrials.Gov.

"Brain metastasis has traditionally been an area that was difficult to study," Goldman says. "But, thankfully, more and more studies are focused on exactly this problem."

Additional reporting by Erica Patino.

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