Newswise — Morhaf Al Achkar is a 36-year-old family medicine physician at UW Medicine who has been living with stage 4 lung cancer for more than three years. Dr. Al Achkar never smoked but, like many with the disease, he has a genetic type of lung cancer.

As a qualitative researcher, he decided to research his disease.

He gathered 40 stories of inspiration  that were recently published in the book, “Roads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer.” He even sent a copy of his book to Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host who announced Feb. 3 that he has advanced lung cancer.

While a significant proportion of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages and have a survival rate of a few months, targeted therapy is helping many live longer.