Small But Mighty: ROS1ers Unite

The times are a-changin' in CancerLand. Gone are the days when you simply had breast cancer, lung cancer or leukemia. Now each has its own specific type and these days you can often discover what precise mutation is driving the cancer. As I discussed in my post "A Personal Take on Personalized Medicine," my cancer is driven by a mutation called ROS1.

In many ways, knowing this is a GREAT thing. When we found out what was driving my cancer, I was able to stop chemo and instead take a pill called Xalkori (crizotinib) that has been controlling my cancer for close to two years. That's fantastic! So what's the downside, you may ask?

Well, of the over 220,000 new cases of lung cancer each year, only about 1 percent of those have the ROS1 mutation. While being unusual may have a nice charm to it, from a research point of view, it is pretty crummy. Why would researchers focus their efforts on helping such a tiny fraction of people? Us ROS1ers lucked out by riding on the coattails of research for another mutation, ALK, and the drug that I take is actually only FDA-approved for ALK-positive lung cancer. There is no FDA-approved medication specifically for ROS1 lung cancer, it was just a happy coincidence that Xalkori works well for ROS1.

For the time being, this is not a problem. I will keep taking my off-label magic pills for as long as they work. But therein lies the problem — almost certainly, they will stop working someday. There are a few other drugs in trials for ALK that also look like they should work for ROS1, but at some point us ROS1ers have to stop tagging along with our cousin ALK and get some research focused on us.

And herein lies the opportunity. Because we now have the remarkable ability to sequence a person's tumor and discover the driving mutation, ROS1 mutations have also been discovered in colorectal cancer, glioblastoma and others. There are now revolutionary trials underway that are not for lung cancer or breast cancer or prostate cancer, but rather for specific mutations regardless of where they are in the body. Fascinating stuff!

It is true that us ROS1ers make up a tiny fraction of the lung cancer population, but when you add together all of the other ROS1-driven cancers out there, our numbers no longer look so puny. Together we make a group that is worth researching and worth saving. When patients unite, they become powerful activists. If you don’t believe me, read about how a group of lung cancer patients and caregivers petitioned to change the surgical guidelines for stage 4 — and they succeeded! (See "Empowered Patients Change National Cancer Guidelines")

So if any of you out there have a cancer driven by ROS1, please leave a comment below or find me on Facebook or Twitter. I would love to hear more about your treatment experiences and discuss how we can help each other.

Tori Tomalia is many things: a mom, a wife, a theatre artist, a mediocre cook, a Buffy fan, a stinky cheese aficionado. She is also, unfortunately, a repeat visitor to CancerLand. Stay tuned for her continued adventures.

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Blog: "A Lil Lytnin' Strikes Lung Cancer" lil-lytnin.blogspot.com