Lung Cancer Care After Surprising MRI

After Dionne Harmon, a nonsmoker and marathon runner, learned she had lung cancer, a USC Norris team used advanced tech and medicine to get her on the path to a speedy recovery.

As a nonsmoker who had completed three marathons by her mid-40s, Dionne Harmon had no reason to be worried about her health.

But in 2023, Dionne, an entertainment executive producer and president of Jesse Collins Entertainment, came across a Kim Kardashian Instagram post about getting a full-body MRI scan, noting the technology had saved some of her friends’ lives. Dionne looked into it and found other people had gotten the scan and caught diseases early.

After a few months, in early 2024, Dionne and her fiancé, Jesse, received whole-body scans. Days later, the company that offers the scans called Dionne with unsettling news: Her scan showed a mass in her lung. Dionne’s primary care doctor quickly referred her to a pulmonologist, who ordered an X-ray that confirmed the presence of a mass.

“At this point, the C word is starting to come up,” recalls Dionne, 47.

The pulmonologist then ordered a CT scan that showed the mass was sizable and active, and that it had to come out. Dionne received a referral to Graeme Rosenberg, MD, a thoracic surgeon with USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC.

Dr. Rosenberg advised Dionne to have a biopsy to determine what the mass was, as well as surgery to remove it. He also emphasized the positive: “She had very minimal risk factors. She was a young, active nonsmoker who had a healthy lifestyle.”

The biopsy confirmed the unfortunate results. “It was definitely cancer,” Dionne says. Even so, the biopsy and the size of the tumor indicated early-stage cancer.

Quick action from medical team

Dionne remembers how quickly the Keck Medicine team acted. In just a few days, she was in surgery to remove the tumor.

To assist with her procedure, as with most of his thoracic surgeries, Dr. Rosenberg used a state-of-the-art surgical robot. With a camera and four arms that the surgeon controls, the robot allowed the team to avoid opening Dionne’s chest and instead perform a more precise surgery, shortening the recovery time from months to weeks.

During surgery, however, the surgical team learned that, behind the dominant tumor, there was a smaller tumor that hadn’t appeared on imaging. The team also found cancer in two of Dionne’s lymph nodes.

As a result, her diagnosis changed from stage IB cancer (typically confined to a tumor) to stage IIIA (spreading to other parts of the body). “This is when the whole team that takes care of lung cancer patients came together,” Dr. Rosenberg says.

At its weekly meeting, Keck Medicine’s multidisciplinary team of surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and pulmonologists discussed Dionne’s case and treatment plan. Also, Dionne met with Jorge Nieva, MD, a USC Norris medical oncologist who informed her about stage IIIA lung cancer and the possible treatments.

Fortunately, Dr. Rosenberg had made what Dionne now calls “probably the best decision ever”: He ordered DNA testing — specifically, next-generation sequencing — on a portion of her lung that was removed. This test is performed for almost all USC Norris lung cancer patients to gain more information about the cancer.

The DNA test revealed that Dionne’s cancer had an EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutation, which is more common in younger nonsmokers with lung cancer. The EGFR mutation meant that Dionne could have a high cure rate without undergoing four months of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and instead for three years take a personalized medicine that targets the cancer.

While chemo attacks rapidly replicating cells, including but not limited to cancer, targeted drugs aim at the cancer cells directly. If chemo is a carpet bomb, targeted drugs are a heat-seeking missile.

Dionne welcomed this news — and the testing that made it possible. In her eyes, “the DNA test was lifesaving,” she says.

Targeted medicine for lung cancer patients with the EGFR mutation can improve outcomes by about 80%, Dr. Nieva notes. “The outlook for many lung cancer patients has really improved because of new technologies and advancements in surgery and in our understanding of the molecular drivers of cancer,” he says.

Hospital stay ends, care continues

Dionne’s care did not end with the surgery. She praises Dr. Rosenberg, Dr. Nieva and the rest of her Keck Medicine team for communicating with her and supporting her during her recovery.

Even when she played “Dr. Google” and found scary stuff online, Dr. Rosenberg talked her through it, Dionne recalls. “He advocated for me every step of the way.”

Dr. Rosenberg takes an engaged approach to patient recovery, he explains. “Patients want to be active in what they can do after the diagnosis, so I talk with them about nutrition, fitness, psychological health and connections with friends and family,” he says.

For months after Dionne’s surgery, he says, “We worked together really closely to get her back to doing the things she wants to do.”

One thing Dionne definitely wanted to do was run another marathon. In April 2025, about a year after her surgery, she completed the Paris marathon. “That was a really big milestone for me,” she says.

At her 18-month follow-up, all of Dionne’s scans were clear. She is now in remission, with no measurable cancer, Dr. Nieva says.

“Getting my care at Keck Medicine, having access to the most high-tech equipment and resources, having people who were always forward-thinking and not just checking the boxes — it was the best possible outcome for the worst situation,” Dionne says.

And she’s aware that, if she had not gotten that full-body MRI scan, she likely would not have learned of the cancer until many months later, after it had progressed. Stage IV lung cancer can rarely be treated with surgery, and it resists drug therapy.

While a full-body MRI scan can result in false positives and isn’t cheap, “it was definitely a blessing,” she says.

Extending the benefits to others

Now, Dionne wants to share the benefits of her experience with others.

In 2025, she formed the Lung Cancer Awareness Foundation to raise awareness that lung cancer is not just a smoker’s disease and that nonsmokers can benefit from lung scans to detect disease early.

“The earlier we find lung cancer, the better the long-term outcomes,” says Dr. Rosenberg, a foundation board member.

“It’s very easy as an adult, with life and work and family, to neglect your health,” says Dionne, noting that she’s now “less Type A” than she used to be. “It’s important that you take care of your body.”

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