Doctors offer hope to never-smoker mother after Stage 4 lung cancer treatment fails
- Huang Yiyan, mother of a 12-year-old son, receives funds from Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Foundation for an effective new drug
- Patient’s dark days of depression and worst symptoms have gone and she is happy to spend the time she has left with her family
It was only about a year ago when never-smoker Huang Yiyan was racked with pain after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The 48-year-old Hongkonger’s family were devastated to hear the news and learn that her treatment was failing to improve her condition.
“I talked about ending my life every day, saying, ‘There’s no hope for me and I don't want to live anymore’, Huang, the mother of a 12-year-old son, says.
Early last year, she noticed the lymph nodes in her neck were swollen and she began experiencing shortness of breath. But her doctor told that nothing abnormal had been seen.
However, by March her condition had deteriorated to the point where she was finding it difficult to swallow and experiencing chest pains.
A chest X-ray revealed an unusual white-grey mass, which led to her being referred to a specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Kowloon. On March 18, further tests showed she was suffering from Stage 4 lung cancer which featured a special T790M gene mutation.
