Oncology Stories

Kirk's race against cancer

As an endurance athlete, Kirk didn't let a lung cancer diagnosis slow him down for very long.



As an endurance athlete and a non-smoker his whole life, Kirk Smith was shocked by his doctor’s diagnosis: He had stage IIIb lung cancer. Results from a tissue biopsy revealed he was ALK-positive, meaning Kirk had a genetic mutation found in a small number of lung cancer patients. Even more concerning to him was learning that the five-year survival rate is 5%.

 

That was December 2013.


By the next month, Kirk had started taking a new targeted therapy to shrink his tumors. Despite the diagnosis, he wasn’t giving up on his active lifestyle. A longtime runner, Kirk started training for a half-marathon again and quickly found that regular exercise helped him manage some side effects he’d experienced from the medication. He not only finished the race in early March, he bested his goal time and finished fourth in his age group.

A few months later, Kirk switched medications again due to side effects. He was able to start taking a medication that had just received FDA approval because of its tremendous success in clinical trials. Kirk stayed on that therapy for more than three years, until cancer was detected in his brain.

This led him to an even newer drug—one that demonstrated greater success in diminishing brain lesions and working through the blood/brain barrier.

The targeted therapies used to treat Kirk’s cancer, which were enabled through years of research, have shrunk Kirk’s tumors, cleared his lymph nodes and enabled him to continue to train.


Quotation marks
“Research led to an understanding of the genetic mutations causing my disease and the development of the medication I am taking. Cancer therapies have allowed me, and patients like me, to live an active life despite the disease.”

Kirk

Healthier

In 2016, PPD, now the clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific, selected Kirk to be a member of its PPD Heroes team. He shared his personal journey at a standing-room-only company event before competing in a triathlon the next day. For PPD colleagues, hearing from survivors like Kirk is a reminder of how their work, which enables customers to deliver life-changing therapies, makes a real difference in people’s lives.

 

“These therapies have allowed me to live the way I normally live — as a very physically active person,” Kirk says. “The changes in medication and treatment for metastatic lung cancer are truly amazing. Research led to an understanding of the genetic mutations causing my disease and the development of the medication I am taking.”

“Cancer therapies have allowed me, and patients like me, to live an active life despite the disease. Research makes a difference. Research saves lives. The reality, in my case, is that I am alive because of it.”







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