Maryland Woman with Stage IV Lung Cancer Thrives Six Years After Months-to-Live Diagnosis

A Maryland woman diagnosed with terminal cancer is thriving six years later, thanks to a targeted therapy.

A cancer diagnosis with just months to live is news no one wants to hear.

Just weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Christine Richburg started to feel sick.

“I was tired, I was drained, and I knew something was going on within my body,” Richburg said.

She thought the shortness of breath, chills, and pain could be the flu or even COVID-19.

But that all changed when her doctor called.

“He said, ‘I need you to come into the office.’ And I said, ‘What is this about?’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t want to discuss this over the phone.’ I said, ‘Well, is it serious?’ He said, ‘I just need you to come in,’” Richburg said, relating that the drive to the hospital felt like an eternity.

“I say, ‘Why am I here?’ And he said I had Stage IV… non-small cell lung cancer. They don’t know where it came from because I never smoked,” Richburg said.

The cancer had spread to her bones.

“So, I said, ‘Well, how long do I have?’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s hard to tell,’” Richburg said.

Now 62, Richburg is under the care of Dr. Albert Polito, chief of the division of pulmonary medicine and medical director for The Lung Center at Mercy.

According to Dr. Polito, patients with this kind of diagnosis are usually given less than a year to live.

But they call Richburg a miracle.

“[The] epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is something that basically turns [against] the cell so that it just constantly divides. There’s no checkpoint in it. There’s no off switch. And that’s a bad thing,” Dr. Polito explained. “We are now six years out, and she has been on treatment with this medication that targets EGFR, and she’s doing great.”

Polito noted that there are two categories of lung cancer: small-cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, which is what Richburg has. He added there has been a dramatic improvement in the drugs that focus in on EGFR.

“Immunotherapy is very targeted and specific to the tumor cells, the cancer cells themselves. So, it’s different than traditional chemotherapy. Chemotherapy certainly works, but it targets all cells,” Dr. Polito said.

Thanks to a single daily pill, Richburg is living a relatively normal life.

“I do not take myself seriously or anything in life,” Richburg said. “I just try to have a positive outlook, a positive view on everything.”

She said she has God to thank for still being alive, and she’s living each day the best she can.

“Stage IV lung cancer used to be a death sentence, which it’s not now… people can live with it,” Dr. Polito said.

View Mercy pulmonary specialist Dr. Albert Polito’s interview regarding EGFR-positive lung cancer.