Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at 35, a California woman focuses on today

Shortly before her 36th birthday, Alisa Secaida discovered she had advanced stage lung cancer.

Eventually, she would learn that she has stage IV lung cancer, beginning a journey that has now lasted for nearly four years. Secaida has been receiving treatment from City of Hope, and she’s optimistic about her future.

In a recent conversation with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Secaida, who lives near Los Angeles, spoke with energy, candor and passion about her journey.

“I mean, health wise, I feel pretty good,” she says. “You wouldn't know that I was sick.”

Indeed, she appears to be a healthy young woman, and she credits the care she has received at City of Hope.

But she has had a long road, including surgery this year to remove part of her left lung and some lymph nodes. She’s undergone radiation and chemotherapy.

She’s met this challenge with the support of her husband and her family. She’s hoping to have many years with her daughter, who is 11, and her son, who is 9.

She talked with us about her cancer journey, the struggles she has endured, and advice for other patients, particularly women. With more women diagnosed with cancer at younger ages, Secaida stresses the need for women to pay attention to their health and get checked out if they know something is wrong.

“Now I pay attention,” she says. “I don't let things slip through the cracks. And I just try to share my story in hopes that women will do the same. Listen, you can't take care of those people if we're not here and we're not our best selves.” (See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘You’re part of your treatment’

Before she received treatment at City of Hope, Secaida says it took a long time to confirm her illness.

She had a persistent cough that lasted for months. Typically an energetic person, she struggled to stay awake during the day, sometimes going to a coffee shop twice a day for a boost.

Repeated visits with her primary care physician provided no answers. She says the doctor listened to her chest but found nothing, and the physician suggested she should try to get more rest. The doctor suggested she could have symptoms of long Covid, but she noted she never had a cough when she had the virus. She says she never received a chest X-ray, even with symptoms that lasted for months.

Eventually, she paid for a CT scan out of pocket, saying she found a deal on Groupon, and the scan revealed a lesion. Eventually, she was referred to a pulmonologist, who confirmed that she had cancer.

Frustrated, she went to City of Hope, where she praised the medical care and the friendly staff. Unlike other providers where she’d sit for an hour or longer in a waiting room, she says she walks into City of Hope and sees clinicians right away.

“I like that everything there just runs so efficiently and smoothly,” she says. “And when you complain about something, you're taken seriously. You're not dismissed. It's like, hey, you know what? I think we should take a look at this. Let's get an x-ray, or let's get whatever. You're listened to there. You're part of your treatment. You're part of your team.”

In the course of treatment, doctors discovered a lesion in her brain. Radiation therapy addressed the brain lesion, and she says doctors believe they caught the tumor just as it was starting, and recent scans of her brain have been clear. Doctors also discovered cancer hidden in her spine, but it appears to be healing following chemotherapy.

At City of Hope, clinicians also asked about how she was coping, beyond physical symptoms, including support for mental health and offering support for her kids.

“This is not just a shock to you, but a shock to your family, and I loved that they had that as an option, that I could have put my kids in some kind of therapy had they needed it through the hospital,” she says.

Secaida says she appreciates that City of Hope clinicians have focused on her mental health and more than just her cancer. She’s received counseling on everything from her diet to meditation.

She’s also met other staff who have battled cancer.

“I've met so many people there who have lived this firsthand, and so there's just a level of empathy, you know,” she says. “They've lived it with a family member, as a caregiver or as a patient.”

Given her own experience, Secaida urges women to seek a doctor, but to continue pushing for answers, and be willing to visit another clinician if questions aren’t getting answered.

“Go get a second opinion from somebody else and see if maybe that doctor for you is just not a good fit,” she says.

• Read more: Women are more likely than men to avoid care. Here’s how hospitals can help.

‘Living in today’

At times, she says she has suffered with her own mental health during her cancer journey.

She recalls meeting older cancer patients who hoped to live long enough to see their children get married. At the time, she was thinking, "I want to see them get out of elementary school."

“I will admit, like, in the beginning, I was in a dark place,” she says. “I didn't want to leave the house. I wasn't sleeping.” She rationalized, “I can't sleep because if I'm dead in a few months, like, I can't miss this time.”

Her husband grew worried about her refusal to go to sleep, and Secaida says her kids began to recognize that she was struggling.

“I kind of started seeing the kids noticing that .. I was just in a dark space, and something just kind of clicked,” Secaida says. “Like, hey, this isn't fair. I'm not feeling well. Yes, I am sick, but I'm not dead.”

Secaida says she is hopeful for the future, and hopes to see many milestones for her children as they grow up.

“There are days where I'm low, but for the most part, I feel like I've just kind of accepted the reality of it,” she says. “I get that at some point I'm going to die, and that was the scariest part, but I was so afraid of tomorrow that I wasn't living in today. And I'm trying to change that, because, you know, hopefully I get 20, 30 years of tomorrow. But I don't want to be so focused on that that I'm missing out on today.”

“So I try to make the most of all of that.”

• Read more: How the American Cancer Society hopes to improve outcomes for Black women