Dale Johnson

"I'm so glad to be feeling good again."

For the last 15 years of his engineering career, Dale Johnson basically lived at the office, surviving cutbacks, consolidations, and acquisitions, even continuing to work for over a year after becoming eligible for retirement. As Dale says, "you've got to be either darn good or darn flexible."

So when Dale finally retired in early 1997, he was looking forward to the break — and especially the extra time to spend tinkering with his collection of classic cars, including a 1966 Thunderbird.

But one March night, just a few months later, Dale awoke with a sharp pain in his abdomen. By 3:30 AM, he knew he needed to go to the hospital.

Dale had a classic case of appendicitis. As part of their evaluation, doctors performed a computerized tomography, or CAT scan, to non-invasively view Dale's internal organs. Dale's appendix had indeed ruptured. "You must be in pain," the doctor said, flipping through Dale's test results. "And that's the good news."

Dale had more than a burst appendix. The CAT scan also revealed a baseball-sized tumor wrapped around Dale's left kidney.

A Life-saving Disorder!

The diagnosis was shocking. "There's absolutely no incidence of cancer in either side of my family," Dale says. "None. My father lived to be 94, and my mother lived to be 100. A pretty healthy bunch."

An estimated 35,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with kidney cancer. If kidney cancer is detected and treated early, the chances for a full recovery are good. Yet kidney cancer seldom causes problems in its early stages. As a tumor grows, patients may notice blood in their urine or experience unintentional weight loss or back pain that doesn't go away. Cancer may also spread outside the kidneys to nearby organs and other body tissues. Dale's appendicitis attack may literally have saved his life, because he had not yet experienced a cancer symptom. "But after I knew the tumor was there, I could feel it in me," he says.

Obviously, Dale wanted to begin treatment immediately. But doctors wanted to schedule cancer surgery for June — three months down the road. To Dale's mind, that was too far away. Concerned friends recommended Dale receive a second opinion from physicians at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dale lives in Tucson, AZ, more than 120 miles south of Mayo Clinic. Yet he willingly made the drive north, because as he says, "I didn't want to settle for anything less than the very best."

Dale's treatment team at Mayo Clinic included Dr. Robert Ferrigni, who immediately ran diagnostic tests, including an angiogram to check Dale's blood flow, and carefully marked out how to best separate the tumor from Dale's kidney. Surgery was scheduled within a week.

The tumor was removed completely, and it seemed Dale was in the clear. But during a follow-up exam 90 days later, doctors discovered a second problem: Dale had prostate cancer.

All He Could Do

"At the time, prostate cancer seemed like a death sentence," Dale recalls. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 230,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually in the United States, and that about 29,000 men die of the disease.

Like kidney cancer, prostate cancer often doesn't present any symptoms in its early stages. When prostate cancer is detected early, patients have a better chance of successful treatment with minimal or short-term side effects.

A biopsy sample taken from Dale's prostate revealed that two out of six samples were cancerous. "Within an hour of learning my biopsy results, Dr. Ferrigni called to say, 'This is treatable,'" Dale recalls. "He called me himself. You don't forget things like that."

There's more than one way to treat prostate cancer, but determining the best method depends on individual patient factors. Dr. Ferrigni discussed options with Dale for radiation, implants, and surgery.

Dale's prostate cancer surgery was performed in June 1997. Because the cancer was caught early, and the surgery was a success, no radiation or chemotherapy was required. Eventually, Dale passed the milestone of two years cancer-free. Finally, it seemed he was in the clear, and retirement began to be what Dale had always hoped for: days with grease under his fingernails, and evenings at dinner with friends.

Dale continued to visit Mayo Clinic for follow-up exams every six months. But in June 2002, during a routine exam, Dale's doctors noted that one of his X-ray images showed a slight thickening of his thorax, the wall of his chest cavity. Further examination revealed that Dale's lymph nodes were diseased. Dale had lung cancer.

A Third Cancer!

Dale had been a smoker from a very young age until quitting in 1977, plus he had often worked in hazardous environments, so this cancer was the least surprising for him. "I'd been coughing for a while," he recalls. But still, the diagnosis was stunning, and it brought a new set of challenges.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. It claims more lives than colon, prostate, and breast cancer combined. "But funny as it may sound," says Dale, "I never worried. I was in the best hands. They were watching closely."

Treatment for lung cancer depends on the type of cancer, how advanced it is, and the patient's overall health. In some cases, surgical removal of the tumor is an option. In other cases, chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of the two may provide better results.

Dale's treatment team expanded to include Dr. Donald Northfelt and Dr. Steven Schild, both part of Mayo's integrated advanced lung cancer treatment team. Treatment involved a combination of radiation and chemotherapy over the better part of six months.

Now, Dale exercises regularly. "If cancer pops its head up again, we'll be ready."

Every day, Dale drove the 240 miles roundtrip to Mayo Clinic for treatment. He declined the options of staying in a hotel or receiving radiation or chemotherapy at an outside facility closer to home. "It gave me something to focus on," he says. "Some days, I would come home and go right to sleep. That drive was all I could do. But it was something I had to do."

The combination of cancer treatments and the long drive left Dale with little energy to do anything else. "Some of my friends thought that was a little bit crazy. But I didn't ever want to wake up and say, 'I wish I had done a little more; I wish I had gone to Mayo.'"

Always a straight shooter, Dale asked his treatment team to be blunt about his recovery prospects. "It's going to shorten your life," said Dr. Northfelt, "but not as much as it would have."

Dale finished lung cancer treatment in January 2003, and passed the benchmark of two years cancer-free. "I'm very lucky," he says. "I mean, very bluntly, when someone tells you that you've got lung cancer, it doesn't always end like this."

"I Know We'll Be Ready"

Supposedly, Dale's three incidents of cancer were unrelated. And he's very pragmatic about them. "I hear this expression: cancer survivor. I don't look at it that way. I didn't battle anything. I crawled up on that table and hoped that doctor had a good breakfast. And obviously, I had the right doctors."

Dale's glad to be back to normal life, tracking down power steering leaks and keeping his Thunderbird purring like a kitten.

Still, Dale's not taking any chances. Now, he's proactive about his health, exercising regularly three times a week. "Bicycle for 20 minutes, walking for 20 minutes. I feel so much better since I started the exercises." Dale also returns to Mayo Clinic every 90 days for check-ups.

"Three times I had cancer — and I never experienced a symptom beforehand," he says. "I'm not so naïve as to think it won't pop its head up again. But if it does, I know we'll be ready."

Mr. Dale Johnson passed away in early 2005. Mayo Clinic is grateful to the Johnson family for continuing to share his story on our Web site.