Taylor Leddin-McMaster (Host): Welcome back to the Well Within Reach podcast, brought to you by riversidehealthcare. I'm your host, Taylor Leddin-McMaster. And joining us today is Marcus Whitlow, who is here at the Frankfurt campus. We are in the cancer treatment center here at the Frankfort campus, and he's going to tell us about his journey here, when he was treated for cancer.

Thank you so much for joining us, Mark.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Okay. Thank you for having me.

Host: Yeah. Before we get into the questions, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Well, I'm a retired, retired military and retired police officer. Been retired for four years now and just trying to enjoy the rest of my life.

Host: Yeah. Well your story starts with being an annual participant in Riverside CT lung cancer screenings. Can you tell us about that?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Okay. Well, I was a smoker for about 50 years. And ever since Riverside started offering a CT lung scan, my regular physician, Liz Deck, told me, you need to have this done every single year.

So for many, many years I've been going through that and every now and then, something would show up on the CT lung scan, a nodule or something, and we'd go back, check it out later, and, it would be gone. And so no things come and go when you have those types of thing, scans.

And, several years ago, something showed up on one of the scans. And, we went back and several months later did another scan and it seemed like it had gotten larger. So she sent me to Dr. Khana, a pulmonologist.

Host: Okay.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): To have him take a look at it. We ended up doing a biopsy of the lung and it came back cancerous.

So yeah, those are words you never want to hear. So from that point, Dr. Khana sent me to Riverside Cancer treatment uh, center and to talk to Dr. Hamden and, at that point we discussed everything. Dr. Hamden looked at the lung scans and said, they were going to knock it out of me.

That fortunately we caught it in the early stages. And with that, by catching it in the early stages, with today's modern medicine, no. He said no, they were going to knock this out of me. From that point we started doing immunotherapy and radiation treatments that lasted about four or five months.

And sure enough, had end result was, they did knock it outta me. They'd cured me from the cancer. But the main thing was to fortunately for myself, we caught it in the early stages.

Host: Yeah.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Most of the time, by the time, people if they don't have these screenings and catch it early, by the time they have symptoms, it's too late. You know, it's gone too far.

Host: Yeah. Tell me a little bit about your mentality of that. Because it sounds like you were on the nose getting things done, getting things checked out, and now looking back on that, how was your perception of prevention maybe changed?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Oh, prevention is utmost. I mean, no, there's so many things. In this case, the prevention was catching it early. We know, again, it was isolated in one area. And, you know, it hadn't spread. This type of cancer, it likes to come back and likes to spread throughout, other lymph nodes. And by catching it early, it was isolated and they were able to treat, you just that one, that area.

So by doing that and then doing immunotherapy afterwards, they we're holding it back and every three months, I go back and have another scan. But, uh, hopefully, we can keep it in remission. Yeah. But for myself it's prevention. Prevention is, and catching things early are the most important things.

There's other things that, people can do, especially men, doing a colonoscopy every five years. Yeah. No. There's a cancer that can be prevented, nobody likes to go through that. But it's just a prep. So you can stop a lot of different types of cancers if they're caught early.

Host: Absolutely.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Also, prostate cancer. It is a simple blood test that you can do annually and catch mm-hmm. Again, catch things in the early stages. And, today modern medicine is just, has made so many advancements that prevention is the main thing.

Host: Absolutely. Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. Going back a little bit, you mentioned first you went to Liz Deck and then saw Dr. Khana in pulmonology and then came here to Dr. Hamden. Can you tell me a little bit about what the collaboration was like, of working through those different Riverside offices. And how, your team worked together in keeping you in the loop for things. What was that all like?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Oh, it, it was fantastic. From the time we diagnosed that it was cancerous, within a week I was starting immunotherapy and starting radiation. Yeah. And all of that took place down at the Bourbonnaise campus.

Host: Okay.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): At the center Cancer Center there. Mm-hmm. And couldn't believe you know how well everybody worked together. I mean, you know, they were just so nice. Treated you like family and kept you in the loop of everything going on. So for the first six weeks, everything was done down there. And then after that, then, I was able to, depending upon what it was, go between the Frankfurt campus and the Bourbonnaise campus.

Host: Okay. So they kept you on Route 45 the whole time? Yeah. Very good.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): But yeah, the staff, the nurses, doctors, everybody just been, tremendous and, again, they're just like family.

Host: Yeah. That's wonderful. Mm-hmm. So tell me about when your treatment was complete, and I assume you got to ring the bell.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Actually, yes.

Host: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tell me what that was like. What was your reaction?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Oh, euphoria.

Host: Yeah.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Yeah. No, Dr. Hamden said, and, Dr. Rashed both said you know, they were going to knock it out and they kept their promise.

Host: Good. Mm-hmm. That's great. That's great. And can you tell me a little bit more about the nursing staff and the other team? How were they throughout the process? How did they react during the bell ringing and, I know you said they were like family. What? Oh, yeah.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): I, still, there's some of the nursing staff, I see them, again, it's just like old friends. Mm-hmm. They were treated you like were part of their family. And, I couldn't believe how nice everybody was and concerned, any concern that you had, they followed up on it. And, so, I just feel at home here.

Host: Great. That's great. So I take it you would recommend the Riverside Cancer Institute?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

Host: Yeah. Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience about your experience?

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): Well, again, to me, prevention is the main thing. Mm-hmm. If you can prevent something from happening, to do it and today, again, modern medicine is, has taken such leaps and bounds that so many things are just so easy. I mean, a CT lung scan is five minutes.

Host: Okay. Wow.

Marcus Whitlow (Patient): It's really nothing. And you just lay down, they do the scan and you're gone. Yeah. And so, I mean, no, it's my suggestion or would be that if somebody has smoked or a former smoker, to take advantage of this CT lung scan because you know, it, it can make a difference, catching things early, they can more than likely cure you, but, if you wait too long until you have symptoms, then a lot of times can be too late.

Host: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for that advice and thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it and for sharing your story. And thank you all for tuning into the Well Within Reach podcast. To learn more about Riverside Cancer Institute, visit riversidehealthcare.org.