The power of community and family
- Cynthia Chin-Lee
- Oct 2
- 7 min read
When I think of Claudia Benvegnu’s dramatic recovery from stage 4 (metastasized) lung cancer in less than a year, I’m reminded of the power of community and family to set the stage for healing. Claudia and I are members of a local community group, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Half Moon Bay branch. We were mentors for a UCLA college student, who received one of the AAUW college scholarships. Suddenly, Claudia texted me in February 2025 that she could no longer fill that role because she had a recent diagnosis of lung cancer.
Claudia describes her condition at that time:
“Why do I feel SO BAD, getting so much worse every day? My health had been worsening for about two years. Poor sleep, fatigue, a CPAP machine. I had a very bad rash first on my face, and then neck and then my whole body! It died down after a while, but none of what the dermatologist had recommended seemed to help. I was quite depressed. Finally, I had to shorten my morning walk.”
After meeting with her general practitioner and doing bloodwork, Claudia discovered her C reactive protein was 10.4; normal is less than 0.5. C reactive protein is produced by the liver and when it’s high, it means inflammation is high. Claudia’s platelet count was 647,000 per microliter of blood; normal is 150,000 to 400,000. Platelets are the cells in the blood that help blood clot, and high levels often indicate cancer.
She also scheduled a chest x-ray. When she returned from her doctor’s appointment, she could barely walk up the hill to her front door and for the next 2 months she was confined to her bedroom.
The chest x-ray revealed tumors throughout her lung, and the top of her lung had collapsed with hints that her liver was involved as well. Devastated, she and her husband, Dominic, a senior engineer in Silicon Valley, felt they had gotten a death sentence.
The next day, Claudia texted me about her diagnosis because she remembered my story about breast cancer and how I healed from that in about half a year without having to have surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. I emailed her some information and asked her to call me.
Too weak to call herself, she asked Dominic to contact me. I was surprised that I was talking to her husband and not her, but I realized how much she needed his help at this moment. I told Dominic about Mark Simon and the Nutritional Oncology Research Institute (NORI) in the Los Angeles area. I shared with him the details of the free Zoom meetings Mark runs on Saturday mornings. I also told him about the free Zoom meetings Dr. Robert Hoffman and Chihiro Hozumi from AntiCancer, Inc. lead on Sunday afternoons.
I described to Dominic the low sulfur amino acid diet (low methionine and low cysteine) that I ate and how central the diet was to reducing cancer. It was essentially a whole foods plant-based diet that is low in protein.
Claudia Benvegnu's diagnosis at a glance
Cancer: Non-small cell lung cancer ALK+, Stage 4
Age at diagnosis: 72
Surgery, radiation, or chemo? No
Other treatments: Lorbrena (targeted drug), NORI nutraceuticals, low-sulfur amino acid (low methionine, low cysteine) plant-based diet
Tracking strategies: MRI, PET/CT scans, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) blood test
Quote: ”The heat of the cancer growing stopped. My head cleared. I had hope!”
Two days after her chest x-ray, Claudia and Dominic both changed their diet. Dominic not only learned about the diet for her, but he also embraced the diet for himself as her support system. I admired this whole hearted team approach that they shared. Claudia says he was in charge and did everything she needed to get the best care. “He took me to all of my appointments at Stanford and read all the materials for the NORI set up. He has been on the low methionine diet every step of the way. He figured out what I could eat and cooked it for me AND brought it upstairs to me in the warm bedroom. He has been my angel of mercy and love.”
He has been my angel of mercy and love.
No more venison or beef for breakfast nor fish for lunch. Now Claudia has 6 dates (yes the fruit) for breakfast and potatoes and rice all day. She loves potatoes and they have helped her to regain 10 pounds from the 30 pounds she lost earlier in the year. With this plant-based low-protein diet, she noticed a big immediate change. She says, “The heat of the cancer growing stopped. My head cleared. I had hope!”
Claudia heard from Mark Simon that research has shown overuse of antibiotics can cause cancer. She believes her use of antibiotics in her 30s may have caused her cancer which is non-small cell lung cancer ALK+ (ALK stands for anaplastic lymphoma kinase), a genetic mutation. Her oncologist had asked about Claudia’s exposure to smoking and because Claudia did not have first or second-hand exposure to smoking, the doctor guessed that the lung cancer could have been because of the ALK genetic mutation and ordered a blood test to confirm that right away. Claudia did a PET/CT scan to find out where the cancer was in her body. In addition to the primary tumor in her lung, she has tumors in her brain, spleen, liver, pancreas, adrenal glands and bones.
Her inventory of tumors and lesions was long. Note that a tumor is an abnormal growth of cells that forms a mass and is generally more concerning than a lesion, which is a localized abnormality or damage in tissue or an organ.
Liver: 15 lesions
Lung: 2 major tumors
Spleen: small lesion
Pancreas: 7 lesions
Adrenals:1 small lesion
Bones: numerous lesions
Brain: 28 lesions
Fortunately for Claudia, Pfizer has a targeted drug (not chemo), Lorbrena, for this type of lung cancer. The drug is extremely expensive but insurance has helped and the drug company has a reduced price program.
Dominic also talked to people in the NORI community. Another member of the community, a lung cancer patient and a retired surgeon, Dr. Amil Exume stressed that exercise, diet, and the nutraceuticals were important for recovery. Within a couple days of taking the NORI nutraceuticals (vitamin B6/p5p, sodium selenite, and vitamin D) and being on Lorbrena for 3 weeks, Claudia writes, “My head started to be clearer, and my coordination and speech were improving rapidly. My balance, and awareness of my body in space had greatly improved. I was able to take a shower by myself!”
In April 2025, Claudia said she was finally alert and clearheaded enough to attend the NORI Zoom herself. She took notes from the Zoom, learning about the molecular models of health, which reminded her of grad school and the medicine she learned as an acupuncturist for 23 years. She called that Sunday, April 13, “wonder Sunday” because she felt her life was opening up in front of her. As a treat to herself, she listened later to the Magic Flute opera by Mozart.
The following week she received a second MRI of her head to compare with the earlier one in March. The tumors had decreased by about ½, a sizable amount, and her doctor said no radiation would be needed. Says Claudia, “I felt like I had graduated in cancer school.”
In addition to the B6, sodium selenite, vitamin D, and Lorbrena, Claudia added vitamin K3 in April. She also had a blood draw and found her markers were normal except the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a blood protein that can rise with certain types of cancer. CEA, thus, would be a blood marker she could follow to determine her progress.
In May, having been on Lorbrena for 9 weeks, edema (accumulation of fluid) in her feet and lower legs began to bother her. She tried taking a lower dose of the drug but her body reacted negatively and her new friend Dr. Amil told her that targeted drugs need to be taken at the exact dosage. She switched back to the original dose and to relieve the edema, she massages her feet every morning; the edema no longer bothers her.
A few weeks later she took another blood test to check her CEA; it moved from 18.7 to 7.5, a remarkable reduction. In June, Claudia had another magic day, as she calls it. She found out she could walk more than just up and down one hill to walking up and down 2 hills and for another 60 minutes. Another blood test in June showed more reduction in CEA, now down to 5.2. And a blood draw at Stanford showed her platelets are 348,000, normal.
Look at the remarkable progression of the CEA blood marker from May to September 2025:
She had another visit with her oncologist on August 8 where she got a big hug. Dr. Roy says that imaging shows that her lungs are working normally and the wheezing sounds she had while singing can be fixed by inhaling a bronchodilator, Albuterol. She has used it for a week and she is now able to breathe deeply and sing again. She is now singing along with the opera La Traviata by Verdi and Ave Maria at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic church.
Of course she’s not done yet. She has her next CT scan and MRI in October. She is working toward the status “no evidence of disease” (NED) and says she plans to stay on the diet for the rest of her life. Her progress in so short a time has stunned her doctors while her family and community are celebrating her success.
Kitchari (Claudia's favorite recipe)
In heavy cookware with heavy lid, for example, Creuset cookware, saute the following until onion is translucent:
1/2 large onion
1/2 large carrot
Put 5 cups of water on to boil.
Stir these spices into the saute pot:
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cinnamon (Ceylon, if possible)
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon salt
Add grains, stir in:
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 cup red lentils (can be any kind of lentils)
When everything is well combined and mixed, add the 5 cups of boiling water. Put the lid on the pot and cook at lowest heat temperature for at least 55 minutes.