Skip to main content

Magic little pill

With apologies to Alanis Morissette...


Today marks 4 years on Tagrisso, my magic little pill. I owe this pill my life and my markedly improved lung function. My lungs still aren’t normal – there is a lot of scarring, and I have to use a portable O2 concentrator when I fly. But I can now walk up hills, climb stairs, lift, bike, and hike without feeling short of breath.

Four years ago today in Prof. Dr. Reck’s office at the LungenClinic, we received the joyous news that I was a candidate for targeted therapy. It felt like winning the lottery because I could avoid chemo and have much better chances of managing the cancer. Genetic analysis showed I had the EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutation, and that there was a drug to target this mutation and stop the cells from reproducing. I also have the TP53 mutation, but there is no drug that targets it.

Tagrisso (osimertinib) was invented by AstraZeneca researchers in 2009 and approved by the FDA in 2015. It and other targeted therapies have enabled millions of people like me to live a full life even with late-stage cancer. I hate Big Pharma as much as the next person…but Big Pharma is also saving my life. AstraZeneca has a special program that covers 100% of the co-pay that isn’t paid by insurance (for me, that amounts to $1200/year, but the program covers up to $25K). So I haven’t had to pay anything for this life-saving medication. Of course, many others aren’t as lucky. The retail cost is $18-19K+ per month.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 30, 2026 at 5:13 PM

    Amazing pharmaceutical progress. Thankful for the life you share every day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 1, 2026 at 9:58 AM

    Go science! Oh wait - this regime doesn't care about that anymore. I'm very happy that this is working out for you Esther!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Healthcare costs and insurance woes and victories

Those of you who have read this blog from the beginning may recall my posts about how inexpensive healthcare is in Germany compared to the US. I now have additional proof. I've been receiving "explanation of benefits" statements from Aetna detailing the cost of my hospital stays and other healthcare services since the end of July. Close your eyes and guess how much these amount to. Higher. No, higher. Still higher. Well over $200,000. Of that, I have paid maybe $100 plus some $20-30 co-pays for doctor's visits. Add to that my cancer and blood thinner medications, which would cost about $16,000 per month without insurance. I have no idea what people in my situation do if they are uninsured or under-insured. My recent interaction with one of my German doctors illustrates another stark difference. Before leaving Germany, I had asked my doctor what to do if I received bills from the LungenClinic after we had moved and closed our Deutsche Bank account (all bills in Germany...
15 comments
Read more

Indolent nodules

We met with my oncologist (Dr. Villaruz) and radiation oncologist (Dr. McCall) at UPMC in Pittsburgh yesterday en route from visiting family in Grand Rapids, MI. The main nodule we were watching grew by another millimeter or so. Dr. Villaruz described it as “indolent.” I asked what that meant and as she started to say “growing very slowly,” I recognized the word and blurted out “lazy!” I remarked I’d never heard indolent used in a medical context, and Dr. Villaruz said she’d never heard of it outside of medicine. So we both learned something. She and Dr. McCall said that there is no urgency, but that within the next 9-12 months, they would want to radiate the more clearly defined nodule and another one close to it. A third one looks like “ground glass,” a term for something that is hazy and not quite solid, but you can’t radiate something that is ill-defined and can’t be clearly imaged. It will be much easier to do radiation in the summer than during a busy semester or the winter b...
23 comments
Read more

Four years

Sunday, June 14 marked 4 years since I was diagnosed with lung cancer while living in Hamburg. Those of you who have followed my journey from the start know that my family and I went to hell and back several times during those first six months. Here I am before, during, and after. The photo below was the last taken before my life unraveled. I went on a photography outing with the American Women's Club of Hamburg. When my doctor said my x-ray showed "infiltration" and I should get a CT scan, I put it off for a day so I wouldn't miss this event. That's how unconcerned I was. The possibility of cancer never crossed my mind, despite my severe shortness of breath. This was my hospital room at the LungenClinic, where I learned my shocking diagnosis. I was sitting at the little table with the doctors and Leland was on Zoom. Leland had to travel to the hospital by train (an hour-plus trip) before we could process the news together, shellshocked. This photo shows me in the...
22 comments
Read more