Jeff Kallis survived renal cell carcinoma | kidney cancer | right kidney nephrectomy | diverticulosis | ct urogram

DESCRIPTION

Jeff Kallis survived renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.  When he experienced pain in his lower flank and saw blood in his urine, he sought medical attention.  A CT urogram revealed a stone in his left kidney and a mass in his right kidney.  A biopsy confirmed he has Stage III clear cell renal cell carcinoma.  Jeff underwent a radical nephrectomy on his right kidney.  The operation was painful, but a success.  Through exercise and a healthy diet, Jeff says he feels better than he did before his diagnosis.

Jeff Kallis was enjoying an active lifestyle in late 2022 when he experienced some nasty symptoms for the first time.  They included pain in his lower flank.  He thought the pain would go away, but it didn’t, and in fairly short order, he saw blood in his urine.  That’s when he sought medical attention.

His primary care physician first sought to rule out kidney stones and the possibility of urinary tract infection.  Tests showed no presence of a UTI, but a CT urogram did reveal a stone in Jeff’s left kidney.  That, he expected.  What he didn’t expect was subsequent news that of a mass in his right kidney.

Jeff’s urologist thought Jeff had kidney cancer but wanted to be sure and ordered a biopsy on the right kidney.  Its results confirmed he had Stage III clear cell renal cell carcinoma. 

He was relieved to know that treatment would not include chemotherapy or radiation treatment.  Immunotherapy was considered and rejected, but Jeff went ahead with a nephrectomy, removing his right kidney.  The operation was painful but considered a success.

Following the procedure, Jeff moved around very slowly, but as the pain subsided, he became more active.  He combined slowly increasing exercise with a healthy Mediterranean diet provided by his wife, who he says is an excellent cook.

Jeff Kallis is cancer free but goes in for checkups every six months.  He says he physically feels as well as he did before his diagnosis but emotionally feels better than he did pre-diagnosis as he concentrates on healthy diet and exercise.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kidney Cancer Association: https://www.kidneycancer.org

Jeff’s Website: https://www.kidneycouch.com

Jeff’s Book: One Kidney – Dealing with Kidney Cancer

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: Greetings, this is the @CancerInterviews podcast, and I am your host, Bruce Morton.  Our guest on this episode was hit with multiple nasty symptoms, which led to a diagnosis of Stage III renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.  Jeff Kallis of Rochester, Minnesota had to overcome a lot, and he had to do it with one kidney, but that is what he has done, and now is the time to hear his story.  So, Jeff, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Jeff Kallis: Thank you.  Good morning, Bruce

BM: Jeff, it is our custom to start off by learning a bit about away from your cancer journey.  If you would, tell us a bit about where you are from, what you have done for work, and what you do for fun.

JK: I am from Rochester, Minnesota, and I have a beautiful family of three boys and my wife, Cindy.  I worked for 39 years at Mayo Clinic as an administrator, now retired.  For fun, I like to golf when I can, play outdoors, anything outdoors, gardening, lawn work and playing with our son’s puppy, Remy.

BM: Jeff, every cancer journey has to start somewhere. For you, when did you notice something wrong and what was it?

JK: I noticed in November of 2022 I had lower flank pain, which lasted for about three hours.  Then it subsided.  I assumed it was gas or diverticulosis  or something like that, so, I brushed it off and thought it was a bug.  It left and didn’t reappear for another couple of months. 

BM: Did you choose to seek medical attention right away?

JK: I didn’t right away.  I didn’t even tell my wife.  I put up with it.  Intermittently it would come and go over a course of two months, ending in January 2023.  It go so bad.  The episodes were more frequent and longer lasting.  Then finally, not only did I have the pain in the lower left side, the pain had moved to my abdomen and I started to urinate blood.  That’s when I realized this is something I cannot ignore anymore, and I gave my primary care provider a call.

BM: When you went in, what did the primary care provider learn?

JK: He first wanted to rule out that I had a urinary tract infection.  I didn’t think I had one, and had never had one entire life, but I had never experienced pain like this.  I thought I had been a perfectly healthy individual all my life.  My provider also wanted to rule out kidney stones.  That brought on a battery of urinalysis and blood tests.  They ruled out a urinary tract infection, so my doctor recommended that I have a CT scan of the abdomen to confirm the kidney stone was passing or had passed.  He ordered the CT urogram and more tests, and they found the kidney stone in the left kidney. But what was a surprise was that they found a mass in the right kidney, which had no symptoms.  That was a sinister little disease growing in my body that I had no symptoms about.

BM: At that point you had not yet been diagnosed, but eventually you were.  What was the chain of events that bridged that initial visit and your diagnosis? 

JK: When I had the CT scan, the radiologist and my primary care physician were 85-90 percent sure that in addition to the kidney stones, it was obvious that the mass in the right kidney was renal cell carcinoma.  The subtype is clear cell renal cell carcinoma, and they were pretty confident that’s what I had.  I had a referral to my urologist.  We had additional tests, including a CT scan of the chest.  At their conclusion, the doctor was quite certain that this was renal cell carcinoma.  He then recommended a biopsy, and I decided I wanted to have one just to confirm that it was cancer.  We were considering different options of treatment, going forward.

BM: And that biopsy confirmed you had cancer?

JK: The biopsy confirmed what the CT scan showed, yes.  A biopsy is only able to confirm the grade, not whether the cancer had metastasized beyond the kidney.  It was very clear from the biopsy that it was renal cell carcinoma. 

BM: We’re confident you’ll be able to learn some tips and tools to help you through your personal cancer journey, but first we’d like to invite you to please give us a ‘like,’ leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends.  Kindly click on the Subscribe button and click on the bell icon.  That way you’ll be notified when we release a new cancer interview.  We also want to remind you that we are not distributors of medical advice.  If you seek medical advice, please contact a licensed health care professional.

Jeff, I am attempting to put myself in your shoes.  You were already dealing with the acute pain of kidney stones and now here is the overwhelming mental and emotional piece that comes with a diagnosis of cancer.  How did you handle all this?

JK: I am doing quite well.  Initially, it was quite a surprise.  I had what I called my first hat trick.  I had my kidney stone, I had a cancerous tumor in the other kidney, then a couple weeks after my nephrectomy to remove the tumor, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.  That’s currently what I am living with, the chronic kidney disease.  That’s actually a bigger issue for me than the cancer because I have been cancer free since February of 2023, so I am considered a kidney cancer survivor.

BM: Each cancer is different in terms of its number of treatment options.  In your case, did you have options, or was the nephrectomy the only way to go?

JK: I discussed this with my urologist and in my case, I am Stage III, so my cancer had progressed more than some, and my cancer had progressed into the muscular branch of the renal vein, so I am considered a high/intermediate risk.  Chemotherapy and radiation traditionally does not work for renal cell carcinoma, so we talked about immunotherapy as an option, whether I should have that or as an adjunct therapy for destroy any microcells that might be detected through imaging.  We decided against the immunotherapy.  So, I currently have no treatment other than monitoring every six months with CT scans.

BM: So, looking back on the treatment that you did undergo, what would you say was the toughest part?

JK: The surgery.  It was not a pleasant surgery.  I am really averse to pain.  Probably the first three days were the worst.  Every day after that it subsided, but on a scale of one to ten, it was probably it was an eight for the first week or so, and then subsided very quickly afterwards.  I was up and walking around doing things slowly.  As I look back on it, it was nothing because I had a fracture of my foot where I broke my ankle in four places, so I had that as a benchmark for pain, and when compare the two, the kidney cancer surgery was really a three on a scale of ten, whereas the ankle surgery was a ten.

BM: so, now here you are, going through life with one kidney, and I think a lot of the people watching or listening to this interview would be very interested in your answer to this question, but what is life like with one kidney?

JK: I am more focused on my diet.  Healthy weight and exercise.  I have always been at a pretty healthy weight, ten or fifteen pounds overweight at different times in my life, but I am an active person and my wife is an excellent cook, she is a very healthy cook and I think has helped my journey a lot.  I have what they called a Mediterranean diet, a lot of fruits and vegetables and less red meat and less salt.  So, I think the important thing for me has been to remain active and focused on a diet that is healthy.

BM: You talk about your active lifestyle.  Let’s say that your health, pre-diagnosis, was 100 percent.  If you think about today, what you can physically can and cannot do, how would you quantify your health when compared to what it was, pre-diagnosis?

JK: I would say 100 percent.  My activity now is what it was before, if not more.  I am just more conscious, more aware of the need to be up and mobile and moving, not sitting on the couch or sitting behind a computer like I am now.  I think it is very important to remain active, have a healthy lifestyle and enjoy life.  I definitely enjoy life more now than before. 

BM: When you look at the developments in your journey, where you were and where you are, should be a source of optimism for those diagnosed with kidney cancer?

JK: I think so.  I had originally heard that a kidney cancer diagnosis, it’s a rare cancer, it’s a lethal cancer; but now that I have gone through two years of this, I don’t think that’s true.  I think there is a lot of hope.  It isn’t the doom and gloom that I first thought it was, and I had no treatment for the cancer itself other than the nephrectomy, so, no immunotherapy, no chemotherapy, no medication.  My life now is as it was before.  I don’t feel any different. 

BM: That’s excellent news.  Along the way, it means so much to have support.  It sounds like you enjoyed support from your wife, in the kitchen and elsewhere, but there is also an organization, a national organization, that tries to provide support as well.  It is the Kidney Cancer Association.  If you would, tell us a bit about what it has done for you and what it can do for others. 

JK: Well, the Kidney Cancer Association is a wonderful group.  In addition to the research and the dedication, it actively funds clinical research, and their staff is wonderful.  Radhe is their senior communications director and just a wonderful person. It really is uplifting, and I would encourage every patient to reach out to the Kidney Cancer Association and become an ambassador, like I am.  An ambassador is being a volunteer and an advocate for kidney cancer research, creating kidney cancer awareness.  It is not a difficult job, but it is a fun job.

BM: If somebody wants to go to the Kidney Cancer Association website, what is its address?

JK: It’s https://www.kidneycancer.org

BM: Meanwhile, your involvement with trying to help others doesn’t stop with your being an ambassador for the Kidney Cancer Association.  You have a website.  Could you tell us a little about it?

JK: Sure.  In March of 2025, I launched a website, https://www.kidneycouch.com, and I was inspired by the Kidney Cancer Association and other Facebook groups who promote educational opportunities for people going through kidney cancer.

BM: At the same time, you have written a book on the subject.  Can you tell us about it?

JK: About six months after I was diagnosed, I started writing down all the details of what I was going through and as I started journaling my experience, I concluded I should start writing a book, so I did.  It is called “One Kidney, Dealing With Kidney Cancer.”  It is published on Amazon.  It was really therapeutic for me, personally.  It is a light-hearted discussion of my journey, what I learned.  It sprinkled kidney stones to chronic kidney disease ot kidney cancer itself. 

BM: Jeff, we are going to wrap now, but the final question I have for you pertains to your book.  It likely has many messages for one diagnosed with kidney cancer, but if there is one message from the book you would really hope would resonate with the reader, what would it be?

JK: I think the most important thing is that your physician cannot care for you more than you can.  It’s really important that you understand to educate yourself on what kidney cancer is, your specific diagnosis is. It is really important that you go to credible resources.

BM: Excellent.  Jeff Kallis, Rochester, Minnesota, thanks so much for sharing an inspiring story of survivorship.  Thanks for being with us on Cancer Interviews.

JK: Thank you, Bruce.

BM: And we remind you as always do when we conclude, if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey, there are people out like Jeff Kallis, there are organizations like the Kidney Cancer Association that can offer information and inspiration.  So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kidney Cancer Association: https://www.kidneycancer.org

Jeff’s website: https://www.kidneycouch.com

Jeff’s book: “One Kidney – Dealing with Kidney Cancer”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNHX1XZH

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Jeff Kallis – Kidney Cancer Survivor – Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Jeff Kallis survived renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.  When he experienced pain in his lower flank and saw blood in his urine, he sought medical attention.  A CT urogram revealed a stone in his left kidney and a mass in his right kidney.  A biopsy confirmed he had clear cell renal cell carcinoma.  Jeff underwent a radical nephrectomy on his right kidney.  The operation was painful, but a success.  Through exercise and a healthy diet, Jeff says he feels better than he did before his diagnosis.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kidney Cancer Association: https://www.kidneycancer.org

Jeff’s Website: https://www.kidneycouch.com

Jeff’s Book, available on Amazon: “One Kidney – Dealing with Kidney Cancer”

Time Stamps:

01:42 Jeff’s Journey began with pain in his lower flank and blood in his urine.

04:25 A CT urogram found a stone his left kidney and a mass in his right kidney.

06:04 The urologist, confident Jeff had cancer, recommended a biopsy, which confirmed Jeff’s diagnosis.

07:45 Reaction to diagnosis.

08:48 Discusses treatment options.

10:09 Jeff said the nephrectomy was the toughest part of the journey.

11:22 Describes life with one kidney.

12:29 Compares his health to how it was prior to diagnosis.

13:15 Jeff says his journey should be a source of inspiration for those diagnosed with kidney cancer.

KEYWORDS (tags):

kidney cancer

renal cell carcinoma

kidney stones

radial nephrectomy

ct urogram

diverticulosis

jeff kallis

immunotherapy