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Justin's Story

Justin is thirty years old. He is from North Carolina and has been married to his wife, Kristy since 2003. Together they have a precious 4 year old son.

On Justin's 28th birthday in April '08, Justin quit smoking cold turkey after picking up his first cigarette at age 14. It was a deep regret of Justin's that he ever started smoking as a very young teen, and he made a decision to change his life for the better. He threw away his pack of cigarettes and never looked back. Ironically just a month or so after that was when the strange symptoms started.

In mid-July Justin insisted on a MRI of his neck due to pain so severe that he was loosing range of motion. The MRI revealed a soft-tissue mass in the upper neck area about 1" in diameter. Justin was immediately scheduled to see a Neurosurgeon at Duke, and another MRI (this time with contrast) was scheduled. The day after the contrast MRI, Justin's Neurosurgeon called asking for more tests. He said that he found "abnormalities" in the bone. He scheduled Justin for a bone scan, a CT scan, and another MRI (MRI images were then taken of his brain, neck & shoulder). The follow-up visit with the Neurosurgeon on Wednesday, August 27th was when Justin & Kristy were hit with the bad news. Justin had two tumors in his neck, two in his left shoulder, a large mass in his left lung plus multiple malignant nodules in the right and left lung, and a spot on his liver. There were also signs of malignancy tumors/lesions (cancer) in his ribs, sternum, hips, and so many spots down his spine that we lost count. On Friday, August 29th Duke doctors biopsied Justin's hip. Biopsy results were received on Friday, September 5th that a malignency is present. Justin was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (large cell) that has spread to the bones and liver.

UPDATE:

After two treatment attempts failed to stop the rapid tumor growth (four cycles of the chemotherapy combination, Alimta/Cisplatin, and two months of the targeted treatment, Tarceva), Justin was introduced to the potent chemotherapy and targeted treatment combination of Taxol/Carboplatin/Avastin. The tri-combination is intravenous-fed and administered every three weeks along with zoledronic acid (Zometa) which aids in strengthening Justin’s bones from metastasis disease. Six weeks and two treatment sessions after starting the new regiment, Justin’s chest CT scan on May 12, 2009 showed phenomenal results. The primary lung mass shrunk by 90%, all other lung nodules and tumors vanished with the remaining ones showing only signs of necrosis (dead cells), plus the liver tumor shrunk 75%. Justin's doctor described the extraordinary scan results as, “beyond unusual and simply miraculous”. In addition to chemotherapy, Justin has endured a total of 25 radiation treatments (10 on his neck and shoulder, and 15 on his spine)... these radiation sessions produced grueling side effects that affected Justin’s ability to eat solid food for a large number of days. Thankfully the radiation has succeeded in destroying the bone metastasis. On 8/11/09 Justin's PET scan showed no sign of active disease!  Justin will continued on a maintenance treatment of Avastin & Zometa.

Justin & Dr. Jeffrey Crawford at Duke on 5/12/09 - we just found out that Justin is responding BEAUTIFULLY to the treatmemt!


  CT scan after Tarceva - tumors are circled...                       CT scan after six weeks on Taxol/Carbo/Avastin!!!

Chest CT Scan Results following 8/11/09:

** 10/3/09 - scans look great - liver still clean, bones all stable, and the primary mass which is just a big glob of dead cells and scar tissue has even shrunk another 25%. JUSTIN IS DOING FANTASTIC!!!

** 1/26/10 - Justin had a very small reoccurance with new spots showing in his lungs and liver. He is currently back on the same chemo cocktail (Taxol/Carboplatin/Avastin) with the next scan scheduled for 4/6/10. We are very, very encouraged and confident that the treatment is working just as well if not better than the first time.

** 4/6/10 - scans look soooo good! The reoccurance back in January was only a few nodules that had appeared in his lungs... today they are either gone or have shrunk up to almost nothing. Also in January, new spots were seen on the liver (which at that time looked significant in size), these spots have disappeared to almost nothing... just a speck now. Apparently the primary mass that was so large in early 2009 has continued to shrivel up and much of the scar tissue has also disappeared - today the mass is basically completely gone with only a tiny bit of scar tissue remaining.

** 6/8/10 - CT chest scan after concluding Taxol/Carbo/Avastin cocktail. Scans show that the disease is stable and does not appear to be active. There were still a few tiny spots in the lungs (size of a pebble), but those spots could just be scar tissue. His liver looks great and all the spots on his bones have healed nicely (these "spots" have been stable now for well over a year).   Justin will remain on a maintenance treatment of Taxol & Avastin (and Zometa).  After 4 rounds he will receive another chest CT scan in late August.

** 8/31/10 - CT chest scan after three months on Taxol/Avastin. No new spots (yay!), but a few of those stubborn pebble-size nodules in his lungs (and maybe one in his liver) are still active and very slowely growing. They are still super tiny, but the fact is they are there and not responding to the Taxol/Avastin anymore. Time to switch things up. We are blessed that almost 2 years after dx we are only dealing with pebble-size spots compared to what we were faced with two years ago... we feel good about switching treatments to get rid of those spots once and for all. We look forward to shaking hands with NED sometime very soon here! Justin has a brain CT and PET scheduled for 9/7/10 because he hasn't had either in a year, and it will help Dr. Crawford make the next treatment decision (might be a clinical trial).