From professor to patient: One man's journey on the frontier of lung cancer treatment

Stanford medical professor Bryant Lin spent years advocating for better lung cancer screening, then was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2024 despite being a lifelong non-smoker. His story shows how new genetically targeted drugs are extending survival from months to years. But fewer than half of U.S. lung cancer patients get the genomic testing needed to match them with the best treatment, and insurers often delay coverage of the expensive new drugs. Lin's own treatment has tracked the research frontier, and even as his latest scans show progression, he remains hopeful about emerging options like personalized mRNA vaccines while pushing for wider screening and writing a book about living with a terminal diagnosis.