“There are many days where other than the little scars, I don't think about it at all”

NOVEMBER 2023

Mike's family is profoundly affected by cancer

At 45 years old, in shape and healthy— Mike didn’t view himself as at risk for cancer.

He’s a husband and a father to 7 and 9 year old kids, living in the San Francisco Bay Area and enjoying an active and healthy lifestyle. Daily choices aside, he believes in responsible health maintenance techniques and is diligent when keeping to these. In 2023 however, his relationship with cancer changed forever.

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By November he’d sadly lost both his parents to different cancers. His wife had also been diagnosed with breast cancer. With cancer affecting their family so closely, Mike decided to take his health into his own hands - starting with preventative screening.

“Logically I had no reason to worry about cancer but given my parent’s history, I wanted to make sure I was staying as healthy as possible for our kids"

He already had a regimen of primary care screenings, healthy eating habits, and regular exercise, but he wanted to eliminate unlikely but serious risks like cancer – this is when he found Ezra. After some research, he booked his scan in August and started his journey in being proactive against cancer.

Mike got the Full Body MRI with a low-dose lung CT and received his Ezra scan results quickly. There were some incidental findings such as simple benign cysts that were not concerning, however, there was a finding of a “1.8 cm cortical mass at the lower pole of his right kidney”. This was not a simple cyst. It needed more investigation and Mike did not hesitate.

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He scheduled an appointment with his primary care doctor and had an IV contrast CT scan which confirmed that there was a tumor in his right kidney – most likely cancer. He had robot assisted surgery in October and the tumor was removed without any complications.

Mike had no logical reason to worry about cancer. But he worried about his wife and kids and became proactive with his Ezra scan. As a result, his tumor was caught early and only a small portion of his kidney was removed. This not only left him with a normal functioning kidney on both sides of his body but also gave him medical proof that he was now cancer free.

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“Best of all, there was no additional treatment needed, and my prognosis is good. A large part of the credit for this great prognosis goes to early detection: given that the tumor was found so early, it was easier to remove surgically, and any spread is unlikely - which, if I had waited until the tumor was causing symptoms, might not have been the case, and my chance of survival would have been much lower.”

Overall, the process of getting the scan is “neat” and “non-invasive, so nothing goes in your body and there’s no x-rays or other radiation. I thought it was pretty cool to hang out inside of a giant magnet.” He will proudly show you his minimal surgical scars as evidence.

“I certainly feel like Ezra has done this for me: early detection has given me the amazing gift of extra years, probably extra decades with my family, and I will forever be grateful.”