Since she was young, Jill Feldman has carried the weight of her family’s extensive history of lung cancer, prompting her own early detection and treatment. Jill’s resilience against her ongoing diagnosis and her inspiring ability to live life with joy in spite of her disease is motivating. With the support of her internist, she had baseline CT scans of her lungs every 2-3 years. Then at 39 years old, Jill was diagnosed with Stage 1 lung cancer. Jill knew how unusual it was to be diagnosed at such an early stage. In fact, she fancied herself a poster child for early detection. And for many years, she was. Until the cancer recurred and it was stage 3b.
After undergoing surgery then, as an adjuvant therapy, Jill spent 15 months on a targeted therapy for EGFR+. With the disease contained to her lungs, Jill is grateful that, for now, it can be managed as a chronic disease. In addition to the initial surgeries and adjuvant therapies, Jill has endured stereotactic body radiation, a targeted radiation designed to manage the cancer.
Jill has been a guest on Hope With Answers: Living With Lung Cancer Podcast episodes. Participating in the Hope With Answers Video Series, Jill interviewed physicians to answer patient questions on a variety of topics.
In 2021, Jill was a participant in LCFA’s #LivingWithLungCancer Social Media Takeover as part of World Lung Cancer Day.
Jill is a fiery patient advocate who is one of the co-founders of the patient advocacy group, The EGFR Resisters. Over the years, her advocacy work for lung cancer research has spanned the world. Jill is fighting to remove barriers to those living with lung cancer. She has co-authored an article for IASLC Lung Cancer News. There she noted that, “the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the already existing health inequities in underserved populations.” Jill was part of the discussion at the 2021 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer conference in Singapore.
Read Jill’s story: Overcoming a History of Lung Cancer: Jill Feldman’s Fight for Survival
