Accessibility Statement

Finding Community Through Genomic Profiling: Emily's Story

January 15, 2025    Posted by: Eli Lilly and Company

Emily walking through down a wooded path

The Value of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling

Living in North Carolina surrounded by forests and parks, Emily has a true passion for nature and conservation, but these days her energy has shifted onto another great purpose – helping families and people living with lung cancer – a diagnosis she never expected to receive herself.

At age 39, Emily was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Emily had no known family history of lung cancer, and the diagnosis left her and her family in disbelief. Following the news, Emily describes the feeling of waiting for answers as if she was moving through mud. She vividly remembers the night she received a call from her doctor regarding her test results – his voice sounded hopeful as he shared her biomarker status. She had an actionable biomarker for which there are specific treatment options – providing a flood of relief.

Biomarker status can be identified through comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP), the most thorough type of biomarker testing that looks for alterations in the DNA of a patient's tumor cells to better understand the genomic drivers of lung cancer and inform options for targeted treatments. This form of testing falls under an approach known as precision medicine, in which an individual’s differences are taken into account in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Finding a Support System Amidst the Isolation of a Diagnosis

Initially feeling alone, Emily’s CGP results uncovered a new community allowing her to join a support group and find a safe space amongst those living with her specific type of lung cancer, including many around her age. Through shared experiences, Emily found strength in these new connections. Her support system also led her to RETpositive, an organization whose mission focuses on raising awareness, providing community support and advocacy, and funding medical research for rearranged during transfection (RET)-driven cancer. Emily continues to feel grounded and blessed with the remarkable friendships she has made along this journey.

In taking back control of her health, Emily found her experience presented an opportunity to help others and their loved ones. Now, Emily dedicates her time to helping people understand the value of testing at diagnosis and is committed to working with organizations that are focused on addressing gaps in access to testing across the lung cancer community.

Holding onto Hope and Redefining your Purpose

Today, Emily continues to spread messages of hope in her advocacy efforts. She tells others that cancer does not define you and it is not something to run away from. Instead, choose to deepen your knowledge to understand how you can be your own best advocate.

Emily is hopeful and empowered by the science and research of CGP. While her life may not look exactly like it used to, Emily has continued her passion for travel, gardening and spending time outdoors in the North Carolina mountains.

Alongside the lung cancer community, Lilly is working to educate on the importance of timely CGP to inform early treatment decisions. Lilly is committed to decreasing barriers to testing so that CGP is integrated as the standard of care for patients in which a currently actionable genomic target is detected.

Watch the video to learn more about Emily’s story: