In October, 2021, we met a new survivor from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Brittany, who asked us if we had ever seen a t-shirt with the hashtag, anyonewithlungs. She, like so many others we know, was diagnosed with lung cancer and had no previously known risk factors for getting the disease. She was just 38 years old when she was diagnosed! When we realized there was not a shirt like she was looking for to be found, we set out to create our own version. Four of us survivors put our heads together to decide on a look we felt both men and women with lung cancer, and their family members, might like wearing. We sold shirts during the month of November and raised over $4,000 that we donated to mutation-driven lung cancer research. Any survivor with a genetic mutation knows their future depends on advancements in research and precision medicine to fight this disease. There are thousands of lung cancer survivors diagnosed every year in the U.S. who have mutations that are driving damaged cells in their lungs to turn into cancer. Some of these lung cancer mutations include EGFR, ALK, RET, ROS1, KRAS, BRAF, MET, and TP53. Much more research is needed to develop more treatment options for those who develop lung cancer as a result of a mutation.
