An oncologist faces his own cancer
Each year, more than 30,000 Marylanders face a diagnosis of cancer. This year, I am one of them.
In my 35-year career as an oncologist, I have had the privilege of treating many hundreds of patients for cancer. And when I was director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center for 20 of those years, I led a team that has treated many thousands of cancer patients.
My story is in many ways similar to that of Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, who announced this month that he has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer and will undergo surgery, a radical prostatectomy, to treat the disease.
My cancer was detected during routine screening for prostate cancer.
Although I have no family history and am not in a high-risk group, I opted to get the screening because my internist of many years is a proponent of routine screening. Based on his recommendation I have had a prostate specific antigen test and digital exam every two years. We were both surprised when my PSA blood test from my routine physical in February returned at 6.7 (normal is less than 4). Importantly, the value had more than doubled from when it was last measured two years ago.
A subsequent high-resolution MRI scan showed a suspicious lesion on the left side of the prostate.
Based on the MRI findings, an image-guided biopsy was recommended. The procedure itself was in many ways like a minor procedure at the dentist’s office. Except that you have to take your pants off.
Like Dr. Collins, my biopsy showed a highgrade cancer — nine out of 10 on the pathologist’s grading scale. This means it is the sort of cancer that carries a significant risk of spreading to other parts of the body. Also, like Dr. Collins, I was very relieved that a whole-body PET scan showed only localized disease with no evidence of spread to lymph nodes or bones.
I know I am in a very different position than most cancer patients. When I received my biopsy results, rather than being upset, I was relieved my cancer was caught at an early and hopefully curable stage. If I had not been screened, it is likely that this high-grade tumor would have spread significantly before it caused symptoms.
So for now, my medical team and I are optimistic that a prostatectomy assisted by the DaVinci
robot in a minimally invasive procedure will control and hopefully cure the cancer. I should be home the day after the surgery and back to work in six weeks or so. Other treatments may be needed down the road, but I hope to be among the vast majority of men diagnosed with prostate cancer who are cured of their disease.
I know I am very fortunate on many levels. I have a great medical team, from my internist, Dr. Dennis Cullen (not related) who encouraged me to be screened, to Dr. Minhaj Siddiqui, who guided my diagnosis and will perform the surgery. Everyone I have interacted with — nurses, technicians and front desk staff — has been kind and comforting. I have a wonderful wife and family, devoted dogs and a caring circle of friends.
I live in Maryland, which has made significant and sustained efforts to combat cancer. In
1990, Maryland had the
highest cancer mortality rate of any state in the nation. Starting in 2001, a generation of enlightened legislators (including former Gov. Larry Hogan, himself a cancer survivor) has supported strategic, sustained investment through the Cigarette Restitution Fund (CRF) in broad-based efforts to promote cancer screening, reduce tobacco use, enhance health equity and build infrastructure for cancer care and cancer research in Maryland.
These sustained efforts and investments have worked. Cancer mortality rates in Maryland have dropped from worst in the nation in 1990 to 38th out of 50 states today.
Most importantly, though, I hope that anyone who reads this will think about ways you can reduce your chances of having cancer or dying from it. I strongly encourage everyone to read a very concise, clear summary of cancer screening guidelines
published by the American Cancer Society (bit.ly/ cancer_detection). In two pages, it summarizes what you need to know about screening for the full range of cancers as well as common sense guidelines everyone can follow to significantly reduce the chance of ever developing cancer. These include never using tobacco, maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol intake and being careful about sun exposure.
Last week, the Greenebaum Cancer Center launched an effort to increase lung cancer screening, which is very underutilized in our region and throughout the U.S. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. We are all optimistic new screening tests being developed can have a significant impact on reducing cancer mortality in the future, but the current screening tools are time-tested and work well.
I like to tell the story that if you add up all the Marylanders who came to the Greenebaum Cancer Center and its University of Maryland affiliates for cancer care since the state began the CRF program in 2001, they would fill every seat in M&T Bank Stadium two and a half times. If you add up all those who survived their cancer, they would fill every seat in Camden Yards two and a half times. This year, I hope to be among all those survivors, watching the O’s have a great season.
Cancer screening can save many lives. I believe it saved mine.
If I had not been screened, it is likely that this high-grade tumor would have spread significantly before it caused symptoms.
Kevin Cullen (kevinjcullenmd@gmail. com) is the former director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was also chairman of the board of directors of the American Cancer Society and was a 2023 inductee to the Baltimore Sun’s Civic and Business Hall of Fame.