Four cancers in 40 years: 'I'm lucky to be alive'

The cough began in 2020 and would not go away. Susan Gasson thought it was just a tickle in her throat and did not suspect her lungs.

An X-ray found a mass, and she was later told she had lung cancer, her fourth cancer diagnosis in four decades.

The 75-year-old from Greenwich in south-east London, had already been treated for breast, cervical and thyroid cancer. When the lung cancer returned after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she joined a clinical trial and now takes a single tablet a day.

"I feel lucky to still be here," she said. "I get to watch my grandchildren grow up."

Most of her treatment has been at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital said that before the trial there was no targeted therapy for lung cancer patients with a HER2 gene mutation, as Susan has, so they relied on repeated rounds of chemotherapy, which can have significant side effects. The mutation can drive cells to grow and divide excessively.

Since starting the trial, her tumour has shrunk and she has not needed any more chemotherapy, with her having a CT scan every six weeks.

"My cancer has shrunk and the side effects have been minimal, allowing me to have a much better quality of life," she said.

Cancer ran in her family, affecting both her parents and grandparents. In the early 1980s, when she was in her early 30s and living in Hertfordshire, Susan found a pea-sized lump in her right breast.

Her GP referred her to the Marsden, where she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a lumpectomy, an operation to remove the tumour and some of the surrounding tissue. She needed no further treatment.

"I was told it was a bit like porridge, lots of very tiny lumps," she said.

A few years later, after heavy periods and anaemia, she was found to have fibroids, non-cancerous growths in or around the womb. A hysterectomy at Watford General Hospital in the mid-1980s revealed pre-cancerous cells.

"That was a cervical cancer, but they got it all out," she said.

At the time she had young children and was divorcing her first husband.

"It was all very stressful and traumatic, but I try not to dwell on these things. I think that helps."

Looking after her children kept her occupied, and in her mid-30s she went back to college to study advertising, marketing and public relations. She said she was the oldest student there but found it fun, and she completed her diploma.

Her father later died of oesophageal cancer, and her mother was being treated for thyroid cancer when Gasson found a lump in her own neck. "It was like a small egg," she said.

Doctors first thought it was linked to the carotid artery, but in 1996 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her thyroid was removed at the Marsden's Chelsea site and she then had further treatment at its Sutton site, which left her radioactive for about a week.

"At this point, I'd survived the other two and, although my mother had died in the meantime of thyroid cancer, which was traumatic, I again put my faith in the hospital," she said.

Because of her medical and family history she had genetic testing, and doctors looked at whether she had Cowden syndrome, a rare inherited condition linked to a higher risk of several cancers. It was ruled out.

"I've not let it dominate my life," she said.

Susan travelled the world with her late second husband, who lectured on cruises, and she is involved with the Barbican and sits on the committee of the Guildhall Art Gallery.

The lung cancer, diagnosed at the Marsden in October 2020, came as a shock. Surgeons removed a large part of her lung and a section of her windpipe.

"This surgery was more traumatic than the other surgeries that I'd had. It was more painful, it was more debilitating," she said.

She also had chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but follow-up checks showed the cancer had come back. After a robotic biopsy, doctors told her she was eligible for the trial.

"I was relieved because I'd had several bouts of chemotherapy before and I'd suffered very badly with that," she said.

"Thanks to this trial, I got to see my first granddaughter go off to university and I hope to see her graduate."

Her advice to others with cancer is to stay positive and keep busy.

Asked for three words to describe her, her daughter chose "stubborn, independent, courageous". Her son picked "resilient, selfless, loving".

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