�����

William Brtis, 67, knew something wasn't right when he saw blood in his urine.

When William went to ����� Palos Hospital for tests, his care team found a mass in his bladder. Pathologists diagnosed him with an aggressive form of bladder cancer: muscle-invasive, high-grade urothelial carcinoma.

Six days later, William found out he also had right lung adenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer.

2 Cancers at the Same Time

While rare, you can have two cancers at the same time.

“About 5% to 10% of patients can get diagnosed with two cancers at the same time," says Yazan Numan, MD, ����� medical oncologist. "Usually, this is because of a genetic component, as certain types of cancers can run in families."

A Treatment Plan to Cure 2 Cancers

At first, the double diagnosis hit William hard. “It could be a death sentence, which is how I thought about it,” says William.

William’s care team held meetings with clinicians across multiple specialties to create the most effective treatment plan.  

First, to treat the bladder cancer, William had surgery to remove the mass, followed by several weeks of chemotherapy. Later, surgeons at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University removed William's entire bladder and prostate. This put William in bladder cancer remission.

After recovering from surgery, William's care transitioned to Haider Ali Shirazi, MD, a radiation oncologist at �����, to focus on the lung cancer diagnosis. He began a regimen that included both chemotherapy and daily intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for his lungs. IMRT, which concentrates the amount of radiation to the tumor, minimizes the potential damage to other parts of the body and organs, which can reduce side effects and help protect healthy cells.

Cancer Treatments Don’t Have to Put Life on Hold

From the beginning, William, who works second shift as a forklift operator, told his care team that he would like to continue working during treatment, if possible. It was: William experienced minimal side effects from therapy, so he was able to work throughout his five weeks of daily radiation treatments and weekly chemotherapy infusions.

“I was teasing the nurses about it, saying, ‘You're not putting chemo in me. You're putting water in me,’ because nothing was bothering me at all,” William says. The only hair he lost was his eyelashes, which have since grown back.

“It's really a testament to William how well he tolerated such intense treatment,” says Dr. Shirazi. “It never got his spirits down. Everyone got to know him and got to love him.”