Who We Are.
Our Founders.
The Founding 7 – Allen Lee, Anita Figueras, Colleen Sturdivant, Ildiko Medve, Ivy Elkins, Jill Feldman and Teri Kennedy. The EGFR Resisters patient advocacy group was started by Teri in an effort to push for research. We are fortunate to have such committed individuals from varying backgrounds and experiences.
Our Founders
ILDIKO MEDVE
My name is Ildiko Medve. I am 54 years old and I live with my family in Providence, Rhode Island. Prior to my diagnosis of stage 4 EGFR positive lung cancer, I was working full time in health care as a nephrologist. I was diagnosed in 4/2016 with Lung Cancer after noticing shortness of breath with jogging. Biopsy showed adenocarcinoma, EGFR,exon 19 deletion with bone and brain metastasis. Initial treatment was Tarceva from 5/2016 to 2/2017.
Bone and brain metastasis were resolved and stabilized, however the lung primary lesion progressed in 1/2017 and I was placed into a trial for T790M mutation, dual trial of Tagrisso/ Navitoclax so far with good response. I am being followed by Dr. Janne in Boston( Dana – Farber). I view my personal goal in EGFR Resisters as a health care professional consultant. I am not an oncologist, I do not give personal medical advice. Our goal is to form a caring community for EGFR+ Lung cancer patients and promote new research and studies to make this disease chronic and cured.
IVY ELKINS
My name is Ivy Elkins and I was diagnosed at age 47 with EGFR-positive stage IV lung cancer that had metastasized to my bones and brain. I have been treated successfully with targeted therapy medications since my diagnosis, thus allowing me to lead an active life and handle my lung cancer as a chronic disease. I receive my treatment at the University of Chicago and live in the Chicago suburbs with my husband Ben and my two teenaged boys. I have an undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
I have been involved with the LUNGevity Foundation as a patient advocate since diagnosis. I am a dedicated advocate for lung cancer research as well, having served as a consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Program, completed the AACR ScientistSurvivor program, acted as faculty for the ASCO/AACR Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop, and participated in the program committee for IASLC’s Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. In addition, I frequently share my patient perspective with the media and with pharmaceutical companies involved in lung cancer treatments.
As one of the founding members of the EGFR Resisters Patient Group, I recognize that new treatments are desperately needed for patients who have developed resistance to currently approved targeted therapy medications. It is my hope that many patients will join forces with the EGFR Resisters in order to become a strong voice to encourage new research and clinical trials in this field. Through my advocacy work, I attend many conferences and meetings, allowing me to spread awareness of the work of the EGFR Resisters to medical professionals and fellow patients.
JILL FELDMAN
COLLEEN KENNEDY STURDIVANT
As the only caregiver founder of the EGFR Resisters group, I am inspired and committed to give a voice to the valuable and often shadow role of the caregiver in lung cancer advocacy. I recently came across a quote “Someone said to me, I don’t know how you do it. I replied, because I don’t have a choice.” This rang true to me because unlike the other founders, I have a choice and I choose to fight, not because my life depends on it but because their lives do. I am also part of this effort to support my sister, Teri Kennedy as she continues to thrive with Stage 4 EGFR lung cancer. Its been 2 plus years of ups and downs but with the help of this group, I see hope for many more days, months and years of hope.
While it was quite a shock to have my sister, a young “never smoker” to be diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, our father, his sister and his brother all died of lung cancer within 3 years of each other, starting in 2007. They were considered “former smokers” and through their diagnosis and cancer story, we experienced the shame of the stigma as well as the lack of treatment options. I don’t want anyone else to feel as helpless as they did, either as caregiver or patient. No one deserves to get cancer. Everyone deserves the best treatment options available until a cure is found. In the meantime, we will work hard to make lung cancer a chronically managed disease. While we are focused on EGFR and its eventual resistance to targeted therapies, our message pertains to all lung cancer patients.
Besides being a lung cancer advocate and caregiver, I am a technology consultant/professional living in the Bay Area with my husband, two teenage children and our dog. Along with Allen Lee and Reinhardt Designs services, I am the point person for this EGFR Resisters website.
TERI KENNEDY
I was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2015 at age 51, during the summer after celebrating my youngest daughter graduating from High School in Sacramento, CA, cheering her on at the national youth rowing championships in Florida, and attending a yoga festival in Lake Tahoe. I was very fit, playing competitive tennis, doing power yoga daily and living a very healthy lifestyle, but I wasn’t breathing right, wheezing. After ruling out asthma and walking pneumonia, boom – you have lung cancer. I am also a single mom to a young daughter with downs syndrome.
I have always been very analytical, I had a career in finance, my profession was analyzing the risk and return benefits of a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio. I studied economics at UC Berkeley and received a masters degree from the University of Washington. So I dug into researching my disease, and I was fortunate to benefit from targeted treatment and continued to exercise and live, I even began a relationship with the love of my life after being diagnosed.
After progressing on approved treatment and continuing to research and talk to several scientists and doctors I realized the power of what a group of patients can do. I saw the progress that was made with managing and curing so many other types of cancer and diseases like AIDs in a relatively short amount of time. I thought there are a lot of amazing people out there with all sorts of backgrounds that have EGFR Lung Cancer, and we can focus on making this a treatable, even curable disease, as a grass roots community we can do something. I contacted Anita in New York, a fellow support person with the same disease, and she was motivated and recruited the other driven and dedicated Founders. The EGFR Resister movement became a force.
ANITA FIGUERAS
I have been living with stage IV lung cancer since June 2014. Before diagnosis and retirement, I was an accountant who was Finance and Personnel Manager of a non-profit agency. My passion is for learning and sorting information, finding patterns, and making connections. I’m is also an avid knitter. My husband and I live on 135 acres of woods and beaver pond in northern New York in a home that he designed and built. I have two adult children and three grandchildren. She blogs and tweets under the handle of scifiknitter.
I am currently being treated with chemotherapy after four lines of treatment with targeted therapies. My TKI history: 10 months of erlotinib, 8 months in the Clovis CO-1686 clinical trial, 18 months of osimertinib, and 2 months in a clinical trial testing a combination of erlotinib and trametinib. I had a next generation sequencing test when I began to progress on osimertinib, and now have a rare BRAF resistance mutation. One highlight of my treatment history was giving a statement about my patient experience with CO-1686 to the FDA Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee that evaluated the drug’s safety and efficacy data.
Helping to found the EGFR Resisters is a culmination of my work as a lung cancer advocate. This work has included blogging, networking with other patients and advocates on a variety of social media platforms, public speaking, and lobbying Congress for increased research funding. As I have gone from treatment to treatment, it has become clear that drug resistance is a major issue for EGFR patients, and that we need more options beyond osimertinib. By joining together, EGFR patients will become more powerful and visible. My greatest hope is that this will lead to accelerated research, new treatments, and longer lives for people living with EGFR+ lung cancer.
