A Family's Path Forward with Genomic Profiling: Cory's Story
November 26, 2024 Posted by: Eli Lilly and Company

Navigating an Unexpected Diagnosis in the Family
In 2020, Cory's father was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. The diagnosis came as a shock to everyone. Cory's dad was fit, active, with no known health issues, and never smoked—a stigma that has followed lung cancer for decades.
Cory knew there were going to be challenges ahead of them—emotionally and physically. Cory's father was concerned he'd have to step away from the things he loves, such as volunteer work, hunting, fishing and spending time with family. Facing this news, Cory quickly began to navigate his own emotional challenges brought on by his father's diagnosis, but he also knew that he needed to be there and show up for his father and his family.
How Comprehensive Genomic Profiling Paved a Path to Treatment
Cory's wife, an oncology nurse, and his brother, an anesthesiologist, both became important figures in Cory's support system throughout his father's diagnosis and treatment. When he learned of his father’s diagnosis, Cory began to do his own research to help inform early conversations with his dad’s health care providers. He had no idea there were tests that could help identify mutations or alterations that drive someone''s cancer, but his wife did. She also knew there are certain barriers to getting these tests, which drove her and Cory to advocate for his father to receive comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) prior to initial treatment.
CGP is an important part of precision medicine—an approach to medical care in which an individual's differences are taken into account in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. CGP is 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 targeted treatments options.
Getting CGP allowed Cory's father to make informed decisions and helped identify the right path forward for treating his type of lung cancer.
Shining a Light on the Potential of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling
While actively managing cancer, Cory's father continues to stay busy and is focusing on things in life that bring him joy, like spending more time with his grandkids. As a caregiver, Cory encourages those living with lung cancer and their loved ones to take an active role in treatment decisions from the beginning.
Alongside the lung cancer community, Lilly is working to educate on the importance of timely CGP to inform early treatment decisions for people like Cory's dad and is committed to decreasing barriers to testing.
Watch the video to learn more about Cory’s story:
[00:00-00:03]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[The video fades into a man speaking to the camera. His name and title appear against a white background, Cory, Caregiver For Loved One With Lung Cancer]
My name is Cory. I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
[00:04-00:17]
[Cory appears on screen talking to the camera]
My father just kind of gave us all a call and shared that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. It was unexpected because he didn’t have a history of any type of illness with his lungs,
[00:18-00:21]
[Cory is in his backyard and walks up to the deck]
not a smoker, he lived healthy as well.
[00:22-00:29]
[Cory is on the deck and walks over to sit in a chair. He opens a magazine]
The main emotion that I felt was shock and disbelief. It took a couple of days for it to fully sink in.
[00:30-00:46]
[Cory appears back on screen talking to the camera]
With my wife being an oncology nurse, my brother being an anesthesiologist, they were able to help both emotionally as well as informationally, help me and my siblings kind of understand the cancer and deal with the ramifications of it.
[00:47-00:56]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera]
My dad loves to hunt, he loves to fish, he loves to spend time with family, and then in his day-to-day, he loves to volunteer and serve for the church that he’s part of the congregation for.
[00:57-01:05]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera]
And upon diagnosis, he thought that he may have to stop that. But, upon receiving the treatment that he has, he was able to continue living the life that he wants to.
[01:06-01:13]
[As Cory speaks to the camera, a definition of comprehensive genomic profiling fades in next to him. The text says, "Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP): The most thorough type of biomarker testing that enables the detection of genomic alterations in a person’s cancer tumor cells to inform treatment decisions."
We had never heard about comprehensive genomic profiling, and I remember to this day when my dad got the phone call and he looks up at us smiling.
[01:14-01:21]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera while the definition of CGP fades out of the frame]
The biomarker testing ultimately helped us understand the type of cancer that my father had so that we can make the best choice in terms of treatment in the future.
[01:22-01:31]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera]
Once we had the biomarker results and understood that there was a path forward, we had hope back. And we understood that my dad's life wasn't going to change like we thought it would.
[01:32-01:40]
[Cory sits at his desk and types on a laptop]
It's a whole new world of definitions and words and things that we've never heard about but also there's an emotional piece to it as well.
[01:41-01:55]
[Cory appears back on screen talking to the camera]
As a caregiver, you’re the one that really needs to fully understand what the treatment is, what the cancer is. So my advice would be to ask questions and have an open relationship almost with the doctor just like the patient has.
[01:56-02:00]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera]
So ultimately, looking at my dad and having known him my whole life, if anything he lives life more than he did before.
[02:01-02:15]
[Cory continues speaking to the camera]
And he was able to meet my son, and meet my daughter as well. And that's huge that he’s able to continue living his life, but also continue having those special moments with his kids and his grandkids that he wouldn’t have been able to have without treatment.
[02:16-02:21]
[The video fades out and music fades in. A red background emerges, featuring the white Lilly logo centered on the screen.]