They gave him 6 months to live, but he surpassed 5 years with innovative treatments.

In 2019, Hacer Ağdan (44), who was diagnosed with ‘stage 4 lung cancer with brain metastasis’ in Izmir, was told by doctors that she had a ‘chance of living between 6 months to 1 year’. During this process, Ağdan clung to life with innovative treatments and conveyed a message to other patients to ‘be open to treatment’. She said, ‘Do not give up immediately. As a patient given 6 months to 1 year of life with brain metastasis, the joy of surpassing 5 years is indescribable. I hope it will be a morale boost for all patients.’

Living in Izmir and working as a senior export specialist in a private company, Hacer Ağdan consulted an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist 5 years ago due to persistent flu-like symptoms, fatigue, tinnitus, nausea, severe headaches, and vision and balance problems. She was referred to a neurology specialist, and her brain MRI was performed. Numerous lesions were detected in her brain. Suspecting that the cysts might be parasites that had settled in and multiplied in her brain due to her frequent travels abroad for work, she was admitted to the infectious diseases department of a university hospital. The tests revealed no signs of parasites, but the large lesion in her brain impaired Ağdan’s vision and speech functions. For this reason, she underwent cranial surgery.

The lesion was not seen as a malignant tumor; however, pathology and genetic test results led to a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Following the genetic test, Ağdan was found suitable for targeted therapy and applied to Acıbadem City Oncology Center for treatment in June 2019, where she began to be followed by Medical Oncology Specialist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürbüz Görümlü. Having surpassed 5 years in treatment and continuing her follow-ups without interruption, Hacer Ağdan stated, “Although I sometimes struggle to manage the process psychologically, life is worth living, and I always thank God for being able to overcome these processes.”

‘They said you would live for 6 months’

Speaking about her experiences during that process, Ağdan noted: “Cancer is a frightening disease, but when you accept it and move forward, life can accompany you with beautiful surprises. The joy of surpassing 5 years as a patient given 6 months to 1 year of life with brain metastasis is indescribable. I hope it will be a morale boost for all patients. It is a very difficult process. It was frightening when they said stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Initially, I did not receive any comments from the doctors. I think I overcame this process thanks to my family, friends, and loved ones around me. The reason I was able to get through this process was my high morale and motivation.”

“Do not give up”

Saying, “Life is short; it is short for all of us, but I learned that it is even shorter at that moment,” Ağdan mentioned, “I turned to discovering myself. I began to prioritize myself more. I realized that while I was living for others, I had not spent much time on myself during this illness process. Now I spend my time traveling more, spending time in nature, and prioritizing myself with my loved ones. I do not neglect my tests and follow-ups. My doctor has been my biggest support during this process and has guided me. Hope inside us should never fade. I have never disconnected from my work life; I continue to work from home. My biggest advice to people fighting cancer is to be open to treatment. They should not give up immediately.”

“We started treatment with our targeted therapies”

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürbüz Görümlü from Acıbadem City Oncology Center stated that the results of Hacer Ağdan’s latest check-up were good, saying, “It is extremely striking to achieve a disease-free survival duration exceeding 5 years in a patient with metastatic stage 4 lung cancer. This highlights the value of comprehensive genetic analyses and the personalized treatment approaches based on them.” Continuing his remarks, Görümlü added:

“We had detected widespread metastases in the brain of our patient. In the genetic analysis we conducted, a mutation was found in a gene we call ALK that is specifically present in the tumor. This is very valuable for us. We have one of our very effective targeted therapies available. We started treatment with this. We achieved a very good response with this therapy. We have now completed our fifth year. There is no disease present. There are no tumors left in the brain or lungs. We are continuing treatment with a complete response. While providing the treatment, we were able to ensure that our patient went through a very comfortable period in terms of side effects. She had the chance to continue her daily life. These are very important developments for us.”

Emphasizing the importance of early diagnosis

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gürbüz Görümlü pointed out the importance of early diagnosis in cancer, stating, “We know that even in advanced-stage diseases, our patients can be treated with extremely effective therapies. Personalized treatments and individualized approaches, along with genetic analyses, have allowed us to achieve groundbreaking positive results in our treatment field recently. However, some of our patients are still treated with the classical older therapies we call chemotherapy. It is essential to not forget that these standard treatments have also yielded very successful results for some patients.”