Healthy Living: ALK Lung Cancer

Many lung cancer patients who have never smoked and don’t work around toxic chemicals or carcinogens have been found instead to have a defective gene that drives their cancer.

Now, an FDA-approved therapy is targeting what doctors call ALK positive cancer, helping push patients toward remission.

Courtney Hunter explains in Healthy Living.

Doctors say eventually the drug will stop working and the cancer will regrow.

The hope is that the targeted therapy works long enough for researchers to refine the next generation of the drug, or add another treatment, like immunotherapy to keep Bruce going.

Bruce says he has had some minimal side effects from the drug including fatigue, weight gain, and a suppressed heart rate.