8/30/2026
Patient Case Story: LW
Short Excerpt: LW was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. After a 2022 recurrence, she was told she likely had three to five years to live. She spent six months grieving until she realized she was not “actively dying”. She decided to spend her remaining time truly living. Her journey has combined standard oncology treatment with an integrative, metabolic approach to cancer management. Along the way, she wrote and published a book, and found a new calling helping others heal emotionally as well as physically.
Patient Profile
- Age: 57 years
- Gender: Female
- Primary Diagnosis: Breast cancer
- Date of Diagnosis: 2017
- Recurrence: 2022 – Stage IV with lymph node and lung metastasis
- Current Status: Stable
Diagnosis
LW was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. Her cancer was hormone receptor positive and HER2-low (ER+/PR+/HER2-low), meaning it was fueled in part by estrogen and progesterone. Her initial treatment followed a well-established path for early stage breast cancer: a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and reconstructive surgery.
In 2022, the cancer returned as metastatic disease, which had spread to her lymph nodes and lungs. A metastatic (stage IV) diagnosis changes the calculus of treatment entirely. The goal shifts from cure to long-term control, and patients are often given a sobering statistical picture of what lies ahead.
Her doctor told her that the average survival rate was three to five years. “I quit my job. I cried for six months.”
Survival Rate Statistics
Prognosis conversations in metastatic breast cancer are grounded in population- level statistics, which describe averages across large groups rather than any one person’s outcome. According to the National Cancer Institute’s SEER program, the five-year relative survival rate for breast cancer that has spread to distant sites (stage IV) is approximately 32%, compared with over 99% for cancer caught while still localized to the breast. Other research groups have estimated median survival after a metastatic diagnosis at roughly 2 to 3.2 years. Outcomes vary widely depending on hormone receptor and HER2 status, the specific organs involved, and how a patient’s individual cancer responds to treatment. The range her doctor described is consistent with what’s commonly cited in the literature, but it describes a population, not a person.
Treatment History
Following her recurrence, she began three lines of treatment considered standard of care for ER+/HER2-low metastatic breast cancer: Each line started following the failure of the previous treatment.
- Verzenio (abemaciclib) – Verzenio is a CDK4/6 inhibitor, a class of drug that blocks proteins cancer cells use to divide.
- Exemestane and Everolimus – When her cancer progressed on the first regimen, she moved to exemestane and everolimus.Exemestane lowers estrogen levels in the body to slow the growth of hormone driven tumors. Everolimus is a mTOR inhibitor that targets a different cell-growth pathway.
- Capecitabine – an oral chemotherapy that the body converts into an active drug preferentially within tumor tissue.
She continued on this treatment course until May 2026, when she decided to pause conventional treatment. Her oncologist has recommended Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan), a newer antibody-drug conjugate approved for HER2-low metastatic breast cancer. LW has not started this therapy yet, but is considering doing so in the future.
Emotional and Mental Health
The turning point in her story wasn’t a scan or a lab result – it was a change in mindset.
“I realized I was not actively dying,” she says. That reframe led her to a question: If I’m not going to be here, what do I want my children to know? She began writing a book about life lessons she wanted to teach her children. This book is a proactive guide to emotional intelligence and well-being. As a certified life coach, her experience convinced her that mental and emotional health are not a side note to physical healing, but central to it.
“Good mental health drives where the physical body follows,” she says. She now feels called to help others work through emotional trauma.
Repurposed Medications and Integrative Approaches
In 2024, in addition to her standard treatment, she incorporated a set of repurposed medications. These are drugs approved for other conditions that are being studied for potential anti-cancer activity. Her regimen has included metformin (a diabetes drug), bexagliflozin/Brenzavvy (a diabetes medication), doxycycline (an antibiotic), mebendazole (an antiparasitic), and ivermectin (an antiparasitic), later adding tadalafil and disulfiram (a drug originally developed to treat alcohol use disorder).
She is currently using Press Pulse Therapy, a metabolic strategy for cancer management developed by Boston College biologist Dr. Thomas Seyfried and colleagues. The concept is based on the idea that many cancer cells depend heavily on glucose and glutamine for fuel due to mitochondrial dysfunction, whereas healthy cells can flexibly switch to ketones for energy. The strategy combines sustained metabolic stress (“press”) with intermittent (“pulse”) interventions designed to restrict glucose and glutamine availability during periods of tumor vulnerability while sparing normal tissue.
Alongside this protocol, she has also incorporated mistletoe therapy and a range of supplements into her care routine, including flaxseed oil, PectaSol (modified citrus pectin), fish oil, vitamin D, B vitamins, EGCG green tea extract, magnesium, and mineral-fortified water.
Impact of Metabolic Intervention
LW believes the metabolic intervention with repurposed medications has helped stabilize her cancer. She knows it has addressed underlying issues in her own biology, such as the mild insulin resistance that metformin directly targets. She appreciates the dual approach of Dr. Meakin’s protocol for addressing two areas at once: disrupting the metabolic pathways cancer cells rely on while also supporting the health of her normal cells.
She also values the sense of agency it gives her. Living with metastatic cancer brings a great deal of uncertainty, and actively participating in her care is psychologically meaningful to her. She credits Dr. Meakin’s attentiveness with reinforcing that sense of support. He regularly follows up after appointments with additional resources, such as exercise guidance or a protocol designed to ease the physical effects of PET scans. This makes her feel supported well beyond the visit.
Side Effects and Quality of Life
LW reports tolerating the additional therapies well overall. She has not experienced any significant side effects that she can clearly attribute to the repurposed medications, and she does not feel they have negatively affected her ability to function or her quality of life. She describes a psychological benefit from actively addressing her health on multiple fronts, including conventional oncology, metabolic health, nutrition, exercise, and supportive therapies. This helps her feel more engaged and proactive in her own care.
She acknowledges that managing multiple medications, supplements, and lifestyle changes requires additional effort and can feel overwhelming at times. She views this as part of the broader burden of living with metastatic cancer rather than as a downside of the protocol itself. For her, the benefits have outweighed any inconvenience.
Lifestyle Management
Diet and daily habits became central to her approach. She adopted a strict ketogenic diet during treatment and practiced intermittent fasting on a 16:8 schedule (16 hours fasting, an 8-hour eating window). She stays physically active through regular walking and weight training, which she credits as much for her mental resilience as her physical health.
Conclusion
Her current status is stable. She attributes that to the combination of standard-of-care treatment, repurposed medications and integrative therapies, and the lifestyle changes she made. What she’s most certain of is the role her mental health has played in her physical and emotional well-being.
“Getting to a healthy place emotionally was the biggest hurdle for me,” she says. Her advice to others facing a cancer diagnosis is “self care must come first.” She encourages every patient to figure out what self-care genuinely means for them, and to put their own healing first.
References
- American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Survival Rates. cancer.org — 5-year relative survival rates by SEER stage, based on 2015–2021 data.
- National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.
- Cancer Stat Facts: Female Breast Cancer. seer.cancer.gov.
- Caswell-Jin, J.L., et al. (2021). Prevalence, Incidence, and Survival of Metastatic Breast Cancer. JNCI Cancer Spectrum.
- Mariotto, A.B., et al. (2017). Estimation of the Number of Women Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer in the United States.
- Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
- Seyfried, T.N., Yu, G., Maroon, J.C., & D’Agostino, D.P. (2017). Press-pulse: a novel therapeutic strategy for the metabolic management of cancer. Nutrition & Metabolism, 14, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-017-0178-2
