A physically fit, new mom of a toddler is opening up about her unexpected diagnosis with lung cancer. One member of her care team at Stamford Health explains this is a rare situation, but an increasing and alarming health trend.
Fitness is central to life for Lauren Corcoran.
“I'm very into like boxing and spinning, barre class, and things like that. So I've definitely stayed active,” Corcoran, of Stamford, said.
Last year, Corcoran pushed herself to the next level, training with her husband for a half marathon that they planned to run on their wedding anniversary.
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“In a way, my love for exercising and trying to get back into shape saved my life,” Corcoran said.
That’s because while training, she pulled a muscle in her neck. However, during a trip to the doctor, X-rays and blood tests unveiled something else was wrong. Doctors uncovered a large mass on her left lung - stage 3 lung cancer in the 38-year-old.
“It was absolutely paralyzing, kind of an out of body experience to be honest,” Corcoran said.
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The news came as a shock to the new mom to a young daughter. Doctors told her the tumor had been growing for two to three years while she was carrying and delivering her baby.
“Getting a call from the doctor that there was a mass was just the most terrifying thing that you can imagine,” Corcoran said. “It was a few weeks after my daughter's first birthday, was not the year we were planning for sure.”
Yet something else made her case unique.
“Lauren had never smoked, and she's young. And so we're finding more and more of, who we call never smokers, developing lung cancer,” Dr. Michael Ebright, Stamford Health director of thoracic surgery, said.
Ebright, a member of Corcoran’s care team, explains a rare situation caused her cancer: the mutation of her EGFR gene.
EGFR gene mutation cancers contribute to 10 to 15% of lung cancers. The American Lung Association said the best way to detect them is through testing with a doctor.
“Women who have never smoked are two to three times more likely than men who have never smoked to get lung cancer. And this is something that's a very new concept,” Ebright said.
Since the genetic profiles of cancers are different in non-smokers compared to smokers, treatment is also different.
In Corcoran's case, she started with fertility preservation, in hopes of one day having a second child. Then she simultaneously underwent chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the tumors until they were small enough to remove surgically.
Finally, doctors removed half of Lauren’s left lung.
“The treatment of stage 3 lung cancer is very complicated, and usually requires multiple types of therapy,” Ebright said. “This was a lot to go through for anybody. I think Lauren was special insofar as she was the model of perseverance and determination. We were able to throw the kitchen sink at her, and she did well.”
It was a treatment plan that enabled her to ring the bell, beating cancer.
“I think being gifted in this finding, and getting the chance to fight it, was the mentality that we tried to take,” Corcoran said. “We got a chance. Not everybody gets a chance to fight.”
Less than one year after her diagnosis, with a busy two-year-old, Lauren looks forward to being there for her daughter for years to come. Her health, now an instrumental part of her new role as “mom.”
“I would just bring a picture of my daughter into any appointment, and be like, you can give me 1%, I will be that 1% I'm not going anywhere,” Corcoran said. “I'm an older mom. I waited my whole life to start a family, and my daughter is going to have a mom.”
