Nurse, 37, with shortness of breath while hiking, had stage 4 lung cancer

• Lung cancer is rare in people under 45, but more women who have never smoked develop the disease.
• Tiffany Job was surprised by how out of breath she felt on a hike.
• She was young, healthy and had never smoked, so she was shocked when she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

On a hike in July 2020, Tiffany Job found herself incredibly short of breath.

“I couldn’t walk 20 meters without my heart rate going up,” she told The Patient Story.

This was unusual for Job, 41, from Texas. “I maintained a healthy diet. I exercised constantly. As a nurse and part-time pilates instructor, I was more proactive than most when it came to managing my own health and well-being,” she wrote her on her nonprofit website. , Ten for Ten million.

Then that August, he developed a cough that wouldn’t go away after antibiotic and steroid treatments, so he went to a primary care doctor who was a family friend.

Lung function tests showed that Job had the lung capacity of an 80-year-old. The doctor thought he might have COVID, tuberculosis or a fungus in his lungs.

But months after her symptoms began, Job was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer aged 37, despite being young, fit and never smoked.

Lung cancer is rare in people under the age of 45, with most patients diagnosed age 65 and older, according to the American Cancer Society. Although CDC data suggest that rates of cigarette smoking, which is the leading risk factor for lung cancer in the US, have declined significantly in recent decades, rates of nonsmokers developing lung cancer are increasing.

In particular, women who have never smoked are more than twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men who have never smoked, and more of the few young people who develop lung cancer have never smoked, found a study published earlier this year in the journal Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.

Researchers don’t know why this happens, but it could be linked to certain gene mutations, such as EGFR, which can cause cells to grow out of control and lead to cancer.

Job was diagnosed with lung cancer after changing hospitals

In October 2020, Job underwent a series of tests, including a bronchoscopy, where a tube is inserted down the throat into the lungs so doctors can see inside.

“Every doctor known to man” tried to figure out what was wrong, she said.

After four days of “tests and treatments and jabs and pokes,” Job was diagnosed with cancer, but said he was told he would have to wait up to 14 days for the results of a biopsy to reveal which type.

Job and her husband drove four hours to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center for a second opinion. Doctors quickly identified that she had stage four non-small cell lung cancer that had spread to her pelvis, right femur and cervical spine. He had to start treatment immediately.

A trial treatment helped at first

Job learned she had the EGFR gene mutation, making her eligible for a clinical trial of an experimental lung cancer treatment starting in late 2020.

By November 2021, she was feeling like herself again—she hadn’t needed supplemental oxygen since March and was able to run a mile a day.

But in September 2022, her chest started cramping again. By Thanksgiving, it had become so painful and frequent that she went to the emergency room, where she was told the cancer had gotten “worse” and the medication was losing its effectiveness.

So, she started a new clinical trial in the second week of December 2022.

In November 2023, Job shared on Instagram that her primary tumor was growing and her treatment was no longer effective. So in December 2023, she started another round of chemotherapy and “had a great response initially,” she told Business Insider.

Job’s journey with cancer is ongoing

By July of this year, Job said she was no longer responding to chemotherapy and her tumor started growing again.

In a post on Thursday, she wrote on Instagram that she hoped other drugs would be effective.

“My cancer diagnosis doesn’t define me. I refuse to let it. But it motivates me. It makes me a better person and a more present mother and wife. And it drives me to share the hope I feel every day, not just with those who are fighting for their lives, but with those who soon will be,” Job wrote on her non-profit website.

She and her husband started Ten for Ten Million to raise funds for research at MD Anderson Cancer Center. They told The Patient Story that it gave them purpose and allowed Job to make an impression on the world.

The couple tries to make every day count by making sure they plan outings and have things to look forward to.

“You always think, ‘Oh, when I retire, I’m going to go do this.’ Well, that won’t happen for everyone. We don’t know what will happen to us until the end of the day.