Mystifying Symptoms Mike’s cancer journey began in mid-2013 with seemingly unrelated symptoms: first, a nagging cough; later, a loss of energy and weight. “I suddenly had to wear suspenders with my pants,” Mike said. “How could I drop 20 pounds with no change in eating habits? It was mystifying.” about kidney cancer, the couple wondered what the future would hold.
A fist-sized tumor grew in and around his left kidney. It was a stage 4 metastatic cancer that had spread to his nearby lymph nodes and lungs. Yet rather than despair, he greeted the diagnosis with hope.
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We are gaining the answers we need to totally transform cancer care.
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– Ralph Hauke, MD, FACP “I felt very lucky to get this cancer when I did and not a few years earlier, when I would have been told to go home and put my affairs in order,” Mike explained. For Mike, real hope springs from his participation in an international oncology research treatment trial available at Methodist Estabrook Cancer Center. The trial may hold the key to halting Mike’s cancer and to discovering whether this experimental approach may one day become the standard of care for patients like Mike. *Mike’s full name is withheld because he is an active participant in an ongoing clinical trial.
Mike and Jean W. welcome the hope and knowledge gained by clinical trial participation.
A visit to his internist that fall led to a series of inconclusive tests. By this time, Mike was experiencing a terrible taste in his mouth, and gastric reflux was suspected. “Mike would start a meal and not finish it,” Mike’s wife, Jean, said. “We knew he was eating less but couldn’t believe how weight fell off his body. By the start of 2014, he’d lost over 40 pounds.” The answer came after a urinary infection prompted a referral to urologist Judson Davies, MD, who made sure Mike had a CT scan within 48 hours. “I had the scan at noon Friday, and Dr. Davies called me at home that night,” Mike said. “I knew it couldn’t be good news.”
“Renal cell carcinoma is highly curable if found early, when still confined to the kidney, but if found later, when metastatic, overall survival is not good,” Dr. Davies said. “We tend to talk in terms of maybe one or two years, at most five, and nearly 15,000 people die from kidney cancer each year.” Yet the more the couple talked with Dr. Davies about next steps, the easier it was to stay positive. Dr. Davies reassured the couple that there are more weapons in the cancer arsenal and more oncology expertise than ever before. “Even with metastatic cancer, there is hope, and we have therapies and world-class care right here in Omaha,” Dr. Davies said. “The diagnosis was not as grim as it could have been,” Mike explained. Only one of Mike’s kidneys was cancerous; the other was healthy and strong. And, Continued on page 6
Uncertain Future, Strong Hope Mike and Jean understood all too well that cancer can kill. Mike lost his mother to pancreatic cancer; Jean lost hers to ovarian cancer. Knowing little
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