From Doctor to Patient: Dr. Lin’s Story

When Dr. Bryant Lin noticed a persistent cough and an unusual tightness in his throat last spring, he didn’t panic. A busy primary care doctor, clinical professor at Stanford Medicine, and co-director of Stanford’s Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE), he chalked it up to allergies or a cold. He was just weeks away from turning 50, in good health, and had never smoked a day in his life. 

But something wasn’t right.  

When inhalers and antibiotics did nothing to improve his cough, and at the urging of a trusted PCP colleague, Dr. Lin agreed to a chest X-ray. That simple act — just to rule out an infection — changed the course of his life. 

What the scan revealed was devastating. There was a large suspicious spot in his lungs. More tests followed, including a PET scan and bronchoscopy. Then came the words no one ever expects to hear: stage 4 (IV) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), EGFR exon 19, with metastases to his bones, liver, and brain. 

From doctor to patient  

Prior to his diagnosis, Dr. Lin had spent much of his professional career researching how various diseases, including lung cancer, affect Asian populations differently. CARE had even recently designated lung cancer in non-smokers as a key area of focus. And now, the disease he had been studying had become a personal reality. 

For someone with no history of tobacco use and no significant environmental exposures, his diagnosis also underscored a truth he had long known but now hit much closer to home: lung cancer isn’t just a smoker’s disease.

“It’s ironic,” Dr. Lin told People Magazine, “that I co-founded a center that focuses on Asian health and specifically pointed out the fact that EGFR lung cancer impacts Asians disproportionately — and now I have it.”

What followed were days of disbelief, grief, and reckoning. “We talk about the stages of grief,” he said. “And I went through those at least twice. Maybe more.” 

Dr. Lin began treatment immediately and, thankfully, responded well. “I’m a living, breathing example of how clinical science can help a patient,” he said. 

“From Diagnosis to Dialogue” 

In the face of his diagnosis, Dr. Lin made a decision that reflected both the educator and the human in him: he would keep teaching. Not just about medicine, but life, and what it’s like to live on the other side of the stethoscope.  

That fall, only months after his diagnosis, Dr. Lin launched a new course at Stanford, “From Diagnosis to Dialogue,” a 10-week seminar that followed his real-time experience through treatment, uncertainty, and reflection. 

Dr. Lin saw the unique opportunity for his students to hear from someone who has a foot in both worlds, as a physician and a patient, and felt the responsibility to use his own case to bring attention to the disease. “When life gives you crap,” he joked, “make fertilizer.”  

Each week, he pulled back the curtain on his experiences living with lung cancer: the emotional swings, the physical toll, the logistical hurdles of being both a patient and a physician. His wife, Christine, even joined the class to share her perspective as a caregiver. 

A need to expand screening  

One of Dr. Lin’s most urgent messages in the course had to do with screening — and how current guidelines are failing people like him. 

He emphasized that current screening recommendations are based almost entirely on smoking history. “The only people who get screened are those who have smoked 20 pack-years,” he said. “That leaves out a lot of people.” 

Dr. Lin pointed to data showing that lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in Asian American populations, even among people with no smoking history. “We need to figure out a better way to screen people. And we need better research.” 

A new perspective on care

Through it all, Dr. Lin continues to balance his role as a physician with his lived experience as a patient. “Being a patient is a lot of work,” he told People. “It made me think about how to make healthcare more patient-centered. How to make it better.” 

And his work—as a teacher, a researcher, a patient, and a voice for change—continues.