I’m a scientist studying mysterious lung cancer in young people who have never smoked… now I have it
Dr. Bryant Lin, a family physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer earlier this year
In recent years, Dr. Bryant Lin has noticed a shocking new trend among his target audience.
Young Americans, especially of Asian descent, developed fatal lung cancer despite never having picked up a cigarette.
As a general practitioner for many Asian patients, and as an Asian man himself, duty called.
In 2018, he founded the Center for Asian Health Research and Education at Stanford University to investigate why this group was susceptible to cancer and other long-term diseases.
But earlier this spring, he developed a persistent cough that lasted six weeks.
At first he assumed it was just allergies and tried a series of inhalers. But when the cough persisted, Dr. texted. Lin a colleague, who ordered scans and a biopsy of his lung tissue.
Less than two weeks later, in May 2024, Dr. Lin was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, despite never having smoked a cigarette.
Dr. Lin is one of thousands of young people diagnosed with America’s deadliest form of cancer.
Lung cancer affects more than 230,000 Americans annually and is responsible for one in five cancer deaths. Lung cancer is mainly caused by smoking.
But as smoking declines in the U.S., lung cancer rates are rising among people under age 50 without a history of smoking.
This is especially true for Asian American women, among whom rates have increased by two percent per year since 2006.
Doctor Lin said Yahoo life: ‘But I never thought I would get this cancer, or become the example of my center working on this cancer.’
Dr.’s diagnosis Lin inspired him to teach a new class at Stanford designed to teach students about cancer treatment and empathy through the lens of a patient.
The above shows lung cancer cases among men and women, broken down by age groups. This shows that the disease is now more common in younger women, compared to other groups
His diagnosis inspired him to start teaching a new class at Stanford, with himself as a case study. The course is designed to teach students about cancer treatment and empathy through the lens of a patient.
He said: ‘As a doctor you have an awareness, but not necessarily a deep-seated understanding of what a patient is going through. The data, the science: as a patient that is about two percent of your day. The rest of the day you’re busy with your life, so we built the lesson around that.’
He hopes it teaches students that “it’s really important to have empathy and understanding of what a patient’s journey looks like.”
While Dr. Lin was able to start chemotherapy just eight weeks after his cough started, many young lung cancer patients have a delayed diagnosis because doctors attribute their symptoms to more common conditions such as asthma or bronchitis.
A small studyFor example, research has shown that lung cancer patients do not receive treatment for an average of 138 days after symptoms such as coughing, chest pain and shortness of breath begin.
While smokers make up as many as 90 percent of older lung cancer patients, this number drops to 71 percent for younger patients.
Young patients also have significantly shorter exposures, with an average of 11.5 years compared to 49 years in older patients.
According to recent data from Pew Research, only 10 percent of young adults said they smoked between 2019 and 2023, compared to 35 percent from 2001 to 2003.
While Dr.’s EGFR mutation Lin makes him a candidate for targeted therapies, the cancer may become resistant to the treatment within a year or two.
In Dr. Lin’s case, genetic testing revealed that his cancer was likely caused by a mutation in his EGFR gene.
This means that the cancer causes an excess of the EGFR protein, which can accelerate the growth of lung cancer cells.
He said, “About 50 percent of non-smoking Asians (with lung cancer) have this mutation, and less than 20 percent of non-Hispanic whites have it. We don’t actually know why Asians get this mutation more often than other groups.’
This mutation can also make cancer more aggressive and diagnosed at a later stage.
Dr. Lin said, “Fortunately, this makes me a candidate for targeted therapy.”
He now takes the chemotherapy pill Osimertinib daily, sold under the brand name Tagrisso, which attacks the mutated cancer cells. He also undergoes additional chemotherapy treatments every three weeks.
However, he noted that the cancer could become resistant to these targeted therapies within a year or two, leaving him with few options.
Although the possibility seems bleak, he remains optimistic. He said a colleague told him, “You just have to live long enough for the next treatment to work.”