Cancer Interviews

Alan Morton experienced symptoms associated with prostate cancer, but it was some time before he sought medical attention.   Dating back to his teens, he had had a subpar urine flow, but in his sixties, he began to see blood in his urine.   He thought it might be a urinary tract infection, but when nothing had changed six months later, he contacted his doctor.   After various scans, a digital rect...

Shannon Miller won seven Olympic medals as a gymnast in 1992 and 1996.   She did so against topflight competition, but years later, she faced a more formidable foe: a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.   Her tumor was successfully removed through a procedure called a Unilatera Salpingo-Oophorectomy, but two weeks after that, she learned it more malignant than originally thought.   Aided by the mental to...

Dale Atkinson Description       In 2024, Dale Atkinson was diagnosed with Stage IV esophageal cancer.   His diagnosis preceded by the death of his mother and was preceded by his partner being diagnosed with lung cancer.   All this in the space of a few weeks.   Dale was active in sports and consumed a healthy diet, but in 2019 began to suffer chronic acid reflux.   His symptoms were repeatedly tre...

    Early in Dr, Jessa Landmann's medical training, she discovered a need for attention given to those after they had received treatment for cancer.   The post-treatment phase can be difficult physically, mentally and emotionally.   Nutrition, what survivors eat, how much they eat and when they eat is where she starts in dealing with those going through the multi-layered challenges of post-treatme...

Mike Fitzpatrick was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1999.   That he is still with us in and of itself is amazing; what is even more incredible is that he later learned he had been walking around with symptoms of the disease since 1986!   When he initially reported the symptoms to doctors, they performed some tests and claimed at worst he had a twisted bowel.   Mike went to a different doctor...

    Michelle Reed is still with us after being diagnosed with NMI bladder cancer in 2018; but she will stop short of saying she has survived the disease.   Since surgery to remove a 7mm mass, she has had ten recurrences.   Post-treatment included a chemotherapy regimen of gemcitabine, which she says she will be taking for the rest of her life.   Managing her cancer consists of making she comes in...

John Walker Pattison is still with us despite two protracted battles with cancer.   He was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma in 1975 and relapsed three times.   Then in 2018, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, a diagnosis after which he relapsed once.   After his lymphoma diagnosis, treatment included an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, which included nitrogen mustard, vincristine, proca...

The average age in which people are diagnosed with colon cancer continues to drop.   Louisville-based gastroenterologist Ben Evans, MD says for decades the conventional wisdom was that one should begin getting screened for colon cancer at age 50.   Now, he says you should learn your family history with colon cancer and colon polyps, and with that as your guide, you should start screening as early...

In 2018, for Cindy Koerner, pain in her right breast led to a diagnosis of Stage 3A breast cancer.   She was put on a three-pronged, high-dosage chemotherapy regimen of epirubicin, nab-paclitataxel and cyclophosphamide.   The cyclophosphamide compromised her immune system, resulting in fatigue and fever.   The chemo regimen shut down her ovaries, but when they became active about a year later, Cin...

At age four, Hope Nightingale complained of severe pain in her legs.   At first, her parents thought she was just being a hypochondriac.   That changed when she fell off her scooter and broke the distal femur in her left leg.   The following year, 2011, this led to a diagnosis of Stage II osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.   After a regimen of neoadjuvant chemotherapy featuring cisplatin and dox...

When Jess began to feel pain in her right leg in 2020, she thought it was sciatica.   When extreme pain radiated to her lower back, a physical therapist thought she had a bulging disc.   However, her condition worsened, she went in for an MRI, and it revealed a tumor originally thought to be on her spinal cord.   Further tests indicated the tumor was inside her spinal cord and a diagnosis of myxop...

Adam Deans was an athletic teenager and had aspirations of becoming a professional athlete.   However, all that changed when he fell down a flight of stairs at school.   At first, doctors thought Adam had dislocated his left knee, but upon getting further medical attention, tests showed he had cancer, known as osteosarcoma in his distal femur.   Doctors recommended chemotherapy, but when that was...

What began as a harmless looking spot on Kevin Donaghy's forearm turned into a pair of diagnoses of skin cancer.   The first was Stage II in 2018, but 18 months later, it returned and was diagnosed Stage IV metastatic melanoma BRAF+.   The urologist said Kevin, an IT specialist from Melrose, Scotland, may have six months to live unless he underwent a newly-approved immunotherapy known as pembroluz...

Blood detected in Bob Schreiber's urine led to a diagnosis of Stage IV bladder cancer.   This came after a cystoscopy, in which a tube is inserted into his urethra, taking a picture of the bladder.   Twice without success, Bob hoped BCG treatment would address the cancer by instilling a set of chemicals inside the bladder to strengthen the immune system.   As a result, he had to get his bladder re...

Beth Lehman went through a tumultuous year in 2020.   Thanks to heavy drinking, she was diagnosed with cirrhosis, then basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, followed by hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer.   She underwent radioactive embolization in order to get a liver transplant.   Beth said the two-hour operation wasn't so tough, but the after-effects were difficult, includi...

After close to a decade of abnormal pap smears, a Cone Biopsy indicated Athena Porter had cervical cancer.   To make sure her diagnosis of endocervical adenocarcinoma didn't spread, she opted for a radical hysterectomy.   With the procedure, her cervix was not the only vital organ removed.   A wife and mother to two daughters, Athena feels blessed that she can return to work on her Iowa farm.    ...

Joshua Silva did not take lower back pains and gastrointestinal issues seriously until they worsened, forcing him to visit an emergency room.   A CT scan revealed inflammation of his appendix, necessitating an appendectomy.   A urologist said the scan also showed a problem in his left kidney, later diagnosed as clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer.   Joshua underwent a partial...

While jogging in 2023, Tessa Parry-Wingfield felt an unusual sensation in her left eye.  It wasn't painful but merited medical attention.  She was seen by three doctors before learning she had ocular melanoma, a form of eye cancer.  Because of the particulars of her diagnosis, she had to undergo an enucleation, the removal of her cancerous eye.  With an acrylic implant taking the place of the canc...

  For Bhavika Taunk, life took a radical turn in 2017 when her four-year-old son, Kabir, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.   After a bone marrow transplant, he went on an aggressive chemotherapy regimen for two years.   Kabir relapsed twice, but has been in remission since 2020.   Bhavika tells the story of how she cared for her son and how she reaches out to other parents of childr...

In 2021, Brian Vesall noticed some pain in one of his testicles when getting in his car.   He sought medical attention, which led to his getting an ultrasound.   After briefly looking at the scan, a urologist confirmed to Brian that he had Stage 2A testicular cancer.   He underwent an orchiectomy to remove the cancerous testicle, followed by an aggressive chemotherapy regimen of bleomycin, etopisi...

Marcel D'Allende was in outstanding health, an avid hiker in the mountains overlooking her hometown of Cape Town, South Africa.   However, in October 2021, she began to experience shortness of breath and extreme fatigue.   That led to a diagnosis of Stage IV non-small cell adenocarcinoma, or lung cancer.   Determined not to let cancer define her, she underwent a treatment regimen of radiotherapy,...

In November 2019, Margo Wickersham noticed blood in her urine.   Three months later, she was diagnosed with two types of bladder cancer.   After an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, she underwent a radical cystectomy and a hysterectomy in June 2020, resulting in the removal of her bladder, uterus and ovaries, all this during the quarantine phase of the COVID pandemic.    Ever since, Margo has been...

    When she began experiencing severe bruising and fatigue and turning pale in late 2013, Casey Kang sought medical attention.   This led to a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.   She was placed on an aggressive, 18-month chemotherapy regimen, which included doxorubicin and methotrexate.   Casey relapsed three times during which she was placed on an experimental immunotherapy.   All told,...

Stacy Martin says genetic testing saved her life.    The testing indicated she had the CDH1 mutation.   The mutation gave her an 80 percent chance of getting gastric cancer and a 60 percent chance of breast cancer.   She opted for a prophylactic total gastrectomy to remove her stomach and addressed the possibility of breast cancer with a bilateral mastectomy.   Without a stomach, Stacy has had to...

In 2019, Jonathan Gegerson sought medical attention went he felt a lump on the right side of his neck.   After a couple of scans and a biopsy, he was diagnosed with salivary duct carcinoma, a rare form of head and neck cancer.   Jonathan survived, but not before enduring 67 sessions of radiation, 12 cycles of chemotherapy (carboplatin, taxol, herceptin) and seven surgeries.   He still undergoes a...