Mark Kageyama survived three cancers | metastatic prostate cancer | lung cancer | bone cancer
- Bruce Morton
- Jun 10, 2023
- 17 min read
DESCRIPTION
On this episode of the @CancerInterviews podcast, Mark Kageyama tells host Bruce Morton about his surviving three cancers. A diagnosis of prostate cancer became metastatic prostate cancer when it was learned his cancer spread to his lungs and bones. To fight the cancer, Mark had to experience an aggressive chemotherapy, with the medication, taxotere.
Mark Kageyama of Granada Hills, California was in his mid-sixties in October 2020, and in great shape. One day he was just unable to get out of bed. He required his wife’s help to get to the car and the doctor, who sent Mark to see an oncologist. Over a period of weeks, he was put through a long line of tests.
Mark and his wife were called into the oncologist’s office. That’s when the oncologist told Mark his cancer was so bad it could not be cured. He had Stage IV prostate cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and bones. The oncologist said there were things she could do to Mark more comfortable, but that he should get his affairs in order because the end was near.
Mark’s relationship with his oncologist was contentious at first. She would try telling him what course to take and he would say that first he wanted to research what the doctor had mind. The relationship evolved so that no move was made without Mark’s approval.
When treatment began, Mark went through a lung biopsy. He saw a live screen of his lungs and said there were these “black globs” floating throughout his lungs, which looked really bad. His bones looked really bad as well.
In terms of a gameplan, Mark Kageyama opted for a combination of conventional methods and natural methods. He hoped the conventional approach of chemotherapy would help him get ahead of the cancer so that the natural methods could take over.
In the spring of 2021, Mark says he was at his weakest. He could barely walk. However, even though he had trouble leaving his bedroom, he kept his mind sharp. He used LinkedIn to connect with cancer survivors and cancer patients all over the world. Interacting with them helped him mentally and emotionally.
His conventional way of getting to survivorship was his chemotherapy regimen, and the medication taxotere. Meanwhile, Mark changed his diet completely. He had been a vegan, but added grass-fed beef, organic chicken, organic turkey and wild salmon to his diet. At one point down to 123 pounds, his daughter moved in to cook for him, and he craved the protein, eating sometimes as many as six meals a day, and started to pit the weight back on.
Mark wants people to know that if he survived the three-pronged attack of prostate, bone and lung cancer, they can survive, too. He just wants people to realize there is hope and that one can overcome cancer if one believes.
Additional Resources:
Mark on YouTube: 2byourownhero
Mark on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/house/cancer-conquering-community
Book: “Radical Remissions” by Kelly Turner
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton; Greetings, this is the Cancer Interviews podcast, and I’m your host, Bruce Morton. What began as a diagnosis of prostate cancer for our guest became a diagnosis of lung cancer and bone cancer. But through dogged patient advocacy and a multi-pronged treatment approach, he is surviving and thriving. He is Mark Kageyama of Granada Hills, California, and whether you are on a cancer journey or you know somebody who is, this is a story you are going to want to hear. So here he is, Mark Kageyama, and Mark, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Mark Kageyama: Thank you so much, Bruce. I really appreciate you having me and welcome. Welcome, welcome.
BM: Mark, all of our interviews start off the same way as we want to learn more about you, exclusive of your connection with cancer, so if you would, tell a bit about where you are from, what you do for work, and what you do when you have time for fun.
MK: My name is Mark Kageyama. I was born and raised in Southern California. I grew up in West Los Angeles and I went to Loyola Marymount University, grew up in the area my whole life. It’s a beautiful place and I do a lot of things through my work. Prior to cancer, I did a lot of consulting work with bringing investors and providers together and things of that nature. I am really excited to be on your show, Bruce, and really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
BM: Mark, for all of us who are cancer survivors, there was that terrible, regrettable juncture when we discover that physically, something isn’t quite normal, something isn’t quite right. What was that moment like for you?
MK: I’m glad you asked that because prior to being alerted of anything being wrong, I had this indestructible state of mind. I worked out four to five times a week, I was in great shape, never worried about my age, I am in my mid-60s and never worried about that at all. All of a sudden one day in October 2020, that was during COVID and because of the lockdowns, I was not able to work out like usual and I think that played a big role because when you are working out, I did that for decades, then all of a sudden, you stop, a shift happens with your health and you feel more things about your age. Out of the blue, one day, I was not able to get out of bed. I had to have help from my wife. She helped me to get to the car and to the doctor. The doctor checked me out and temporarily patched me up and I thought there was something really wrong, so I proceeded to do a deep dive into my health. I went to the doctor, got an oncologist, started doing all of these invasive, inhumane tests for cancer. I did one test after the other. It was really tough. Anybody who has gone through cancer tests knows that it’s not a fun thing. It’s very invasive, it’s something that is really, really excruciating. That’s what happened. I started getting testing. As a result of the testing, and this took weeks, each week there were two to three tests, what I did, I took it one day at a time instead of looking at the totality. The way I did it, I would meditate and that’s how I would approach it. That way I would compartmentalize it. All of this led up to my diagnosis. Finally, my oncologist called my wife and I into her office, and I will never forget this as long as I live because it was life-changing to say the least, and she said my cancer was so bad that she couldn’t cure me. She said I have Stage IV prostate, bone and lung cancer and she suggested I get my affairs in order. She was basically telling me that she could make my life more comfortable, but that the end is near. That was my diagnosis and actually at that point, I was actually relieved to finally find out what I was dealing with because if you don’t know what you are dealing with, you can’t address it. You are just kind of in a fog because you don’t know. So, to get that diagnosis, even though the message was not good, it was a great relief to know what was in front of me and at least by knowing I could deal with that. That started my journey.
BM: We’re confident you will 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 below and click on the bell icon, so you’ll be notified when we release our next cancer interview. And if you or a loved one are facing a cancer diagnosis, please click on the link in the Description and Show Notes below to check out our free guide, “The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I First Got Cancer”
Mark, when you got this news, I want to get to the physical aspects of your diagnosis, but the first, the emotional and mental space, if we could. You said that it was a relief because there was no more fear of the unknown, so to say, you knew what faced you; but in terms of going forward, mentally and emotionally, what was your gameplan?
MK: That’s a great question. So, I got the diagnosis from my oncologist, and for all cancer patients, that is a dramatic event in your life because it is life-changing, that diagnosis, because she didn’t give me a number like a lot of doctors do, but she was basically saying I was going to die. That creates a lot of fear, and the fear is a result of lack of knowledge. All of us become, well, many people spend many years studying for a profession. They study to become accountants and lawyers, whatever it may be. You spend a lot of years studying for what you want to be. It takes years and finally you get a degree and you become what you are; but the thing with cancer is, as life-changing of an event as this is, the vast majority of people have no idea about cancer, and I was included in that group. I had no idea what chemotherapy really was. We’d all heard about it for many years. I thought chemotherapy was you go in a room, and they shoot you with this ray gun and you stand there. I had no idea, and so I come to find out you take an IV and an hour and a half or however long it is, and the effects of it are not fun at all. A lot of it is knowledge and a lot of this is fear. So, you reach this point where you have got to educate yourself and you have got to deal with what’s in front of you by gaining as much knowledge as possible. When I first started with my oncologist, she was more like a sergeant. I would go into her office and carry a notebook and she would ask me what I was doing. I would tell her I would want to take notes so that I know exactly what you are telling me. She would tell me what she wanted me to do, and I would write it down and I went to research it. I wanted to find out exactly what she was suggesting, and I wanted to be familiar with it because this is affecting my life. People don’t realize your life is on the line and you have to treat it that way. That is so, so critical. This is a life-changing event, and so many people just say, “Okay, doc. Whatever you say, let’s go ahead and do it.” I wasn’t for that. In fact, one day I think my oncologist was having a bad day, she looked at me, had steam coming out of her ears, and she says, “Why don’t you just do what I tell you to do?” I looked at her and said, “Well, because I want to know what you are asking from me, what you are recommending, and I want to know the side effects and I want to know what the workings are.” She turned her head and didn’t say anything. And it is very interesting because today our relationship is so different because she doesn’t have answers. She realizes that she has played a part in what I have done, but she also knows that she wasn’t the reason (for my positive outcome), and we have come to a point in our relationship where I am the one who tells her what to do. I was on this prostate medication and really wanted to get off this prostate medication. I should point out I am not a doctor. I am not recommending anything to anybody. I will share what I have done and if it is something you could use, then more power to you, but I am not recommending anything. I am not going to be responsible for your results. Your results are different. Everybody is different, and this is what I have done, and your results are your results. It is my own disclaimer as what I have done.
BM: Part of your research told you all chemotherapy regimens are not the same. How you decide on one you liked?
MK: Let me clarify that. There are approximately close to 40 types of chemotherapy, which really shocked me. It’s very important that people research the particular type of chemotherapy that is recommended for them. The reason is because of the way that they describe the different chemotherapies. Some of them are more recent and they don’t have much data. The one that was prescribed for me was called taxotere. It’s one of the older ones and we found that nobody has died from it, and it is one of the more established chemotherapies. For me, I was very, very against going through chemotherapy because chemotherapy is non-discriminate. It goes after the good cells, and it goes after the cancer cells. This was a personal decision that everybody needs to make for their own sake, and this is not me recommending anything, but chemotherapy in my journey played an important part because it helped me to get ahead of the cancer. At that point, when I got my diagnosis, the cancer was in my prostate and my bones and it was Stage IV. Cancer was everywhere. My prostate-specific antigen, or PSA at that time, which is the marker for prostate cancer was 986, which my oncologist said was by far the highest she had ever seen by 200 points. For those who don’t know, a good number for a person should be like four or five, but 986 was in the stratosphere. As we speak today, my PSA is down to 0.5. So, I had to deal with three different types of cancer, and they are all different. When I started, I went through a lung biopsy and I saw an actual live screen of my lungs and I saw black globs floating throughout my lungs, so I knew that was really bad. My bones were also really bad. Of the three areas, the bone cancer was probably the most concerning because I had heard that was the toughest, with lungs being the second most, then the prostate. The interesting thing I found out there are a lot of avenues to get to the desired results. It’s important that people going through cancer find what is best for them as a person because we are all different. Cancer is so confusing because when you get diagnosed, people are going to bombard you, friends, family, outside sources, they are going to say they have the way to do it. That’s what makes a cancer journey so confusing is people telling you they have the answer. That’s why it’s important to compartmentalize that and figure out what’s best for you. If something doesn’t work, change it. Add something that does. I used the chemotherapy to get ahead of the cancer. That helped me to slow down the rapid growth of the cancer. When I started my journey, I used both the conventional methods and I also used natural methods. I used the conventional to get ahead of the cancer to allow the natural things I used to work.
BM: We’ve heard about three different types of cancer that plagued you. Physically, did you feel any manifestations of the bone cancer if that was the worst, or any manifestations of the lung cancer?
MK: In the spring of 2021 was when I was my weakest, and I was down to 123 pounds, I was very weak. I could barely walk. It would take me ten minutes to walk across the room. I didn’t leave my room for three months, but the great thing about was I was never bored. You know, when they say you lose a sense, other senses that you have are enhanced, and that’s what happened with me. My body was not the same. It was a wreck, an absolute wreck, but my mind was really strong. My mind was getting stronger and I had to use my mind to help myself get through this. The mind is so powerful. If you use your mind in the proper way, you can overcome just about anything. Your mind is your own personal computer. We as people need to be our own personal programmers of our computer, which is our mind, and put in the good things. Every day, as bad as I was, I didn’t leave my room for three months, but every day I woke up and would look in the mirror and I would say to myself I was thankful to open my eyes and I said to myself that I am going to better today than I was yesterday, and that is what I have done and I still do it to this day. I always try to improve myself. A friend asked me the other say how I was doing, and I said I was about 85 percent of what I was before cancer. He said that was really good, but with me, I am not satisfied with that. I am happy about it, but I am still striving to get back to what I was. Will I ever do it? I don’t know. If I don’t, I will still be happy with my progress. That’s where that’s at.
BM: Mark, I want to go back to the three months you were talking about, the three months in your room. How did you get to a point in which you felt there was metaphoric light at the end of the tunnel and that this three-month process was not going to go on forever?
MK: That’s a great question, thank you for that. What I did to start was I wanted to talk to people who walked the walk. I used LinkedIn and I started connecting with people all over the world. I connected with cancer survivors and cancer patients all over the world, and so I was never bored. I was always excited for the new day because I was meeting so many people, and these were the people that guided me on the right path. It was phenomenal because everybody who survived, has done it in their own way. So many people give the power to their doctor, their oncologist, whoever. I never wanted to do that because there is nobody, absolutely nobody on Earth who wants me to live more than me. That’s the attitude that I took. I have to live. I was gonna live, and that was my driving force. I have family and friends, I have two daughters who I love so much and my wife and the people around me. I had to live because I wanted to be there to experience life. Last October, my daughter got married and she wanted me to speak at the wedding, and so one of the things that I said was I wanted to love for days like this. That’s what’s important, our relationships with the people that we love. But, getting back to the time in my room, I was essentially going back to school to learn about cancer, and I spent that time in my room to learn as much as I possibly could. As we speak today, I have learned so much and I have so much confidence moving forward about living. There is no doubt in my mind that I am makin’ it and I will continue to make it, and I know exactly at this point, if things go south, I know exactly what to do to go back to getting to where I was. The way I look at it is I am going to have to deal with some aspects of cancer the rest of my life, but I am okay with that. I am back up to 170 pounds or so. I fact, I shot well past my goal weight, and I have had to reduce it, but I feel great. I am so happy to be alive and experience every new day.
BM: Mark, this is a tremendous, powerful message you are sending out today with us, but there is another avenue for you to get out your message and that is a message that goes out via YouTube. If you would, tell us a little bit about that.
MK: My daughter, Lisa, she lives in New York and her and her husband travel the United States by RV. In the late winter of 2021, she said she wanted to come out to California to help me. I told her it was okay, she was busy and didn’t have to, and she kept insisting, and though I was kinda reluctant, I said okay. She ended up staying with me for two and a half months. She cooked for me, and I was so happy because she is a fabulous cook. That was a time in which I really needed help. I changed my diet completely. I was a vegan until that time, then I talked to her. I added grass-fed beef, organic chicken, organic turkey and wild salmon into my diet. That was when my daughter Lisa came in, and she is a great, great cook. So, she was cooking me meals and the fascinating thing about the diet change was that I hadn’t eaten those types of proteins in a decade, but the taste of it was so delicious. I couldn’t get enough. My body was so weak at that time. I was down to 122 pounds that my body was starved for protein, and she was cooking six full meals a day. Big meals. She’d bring a plate of food out to me. Everything was organic, everything was as clean as could be. I would literally devour each plate as soon as she put it in front of me and it was so good. It was really, really delicious. She played such an important part in me getting better. Then I started thinking of starting a YouTube channel. I decided name it To Be Your Own Hero. That’s 2BYourOwnHero. It was started in the spring of 2021. I post one video every Tuesday morning because I wanted to share my journey going through cancer. In the early videos, I was frighteningly weak, I mean you could barely hear my voice. It is great to see the chronology of what happened. I wanted to just inspire people. I wanted to people if see if this Stage IV prostate, bone and lung cancer patient could do it, you can, too. I wanted people to appreciate their lives. We only go around once in life. Make the most of it! Every day is awesome. Every day is incredible. Take advantage of it. That’s how my YouTube channel started and in addition, I started a room on Clubhouse, which we have every Thursday at noon, eastern time, 900am, pacific time called Cancer Conquering Community. That’s where cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, naturopaths, nutritionists, we come together and we just share openly and it’s become a family experience. We have people that come regularly and it’s really wonderful. I am all about helping people. I want to help people realize that there is hope, that you can overcome cancer if you believe it. There are so many facets of this journey, and I would recommend a book to everyone called “Radical Remissions” by Kelly Turner. This book has nine different characteristics of successful cancer patients who became survivors. Doing over 100 interviews on my YouTube channel, I see these exact same patterns of people who have made it, so I have no doubt that these characteristics ring true.
BM: Mark, we are going to wrap up now. We want to thank you for a very powerful and inspiring story that deals not only with your past, but your present and future, and the future of people watching and listening that are on a cancer journey themselves. So, we want to thank you very much for being with us on Cancer Interviews.
MK: Thank you so much, Bruce, I really appreciate it.
BM: This brings to a close this episode of Cancer Interviews. We want to remind you as we always do that if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are lots of people just like Mark who can help because they want to help. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Mark on YouTube: 2byourownhero
Mark on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/house/cancer-conquering-community
Book: “Radical Remissions” by Kelly Turner
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Mark Kageyama, Survivor of Prostate, Bone and Lung Cancer – Granada Hills, California, USA
After Mark Kageyama was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer, he learned the disease had spread to his bones and lungs. Severely weakened and his weight dropping to 120 pounds, Mark combined chemotherapy and natural remedies to get the upper hand on cancer. His weight has returned to 170, and his health is very close to its pre-diagnosis level. This is his story.
Additional Resources:
Mark on YouTube: 2byourownhero
Mark on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/house/cancer-conquering-community
Book: “Radical Remissions” by Kelly Turner
Time Stamps:
03:40 Mark woke up one day and couldn’t get out of bed.
05:05 Underwent tests for cancer.
05:59 Was told he didn’t have long to live.
08:58 Recalls receiving his diagnosis.
11:00 Upon being diagnosed, Mark says it is important to learn as much about cancer as you can.
16:47 Says before undergoing chemo, do plenty of research about the different types of chemo.
22:25 Mark describes how cancer felt.
24:14 Emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive outlook.
29:57 Says he feels great.
KEYWORDS (tags):
cancer
prostate cancer
cancer interviews
bone cancer
lung cancer
bruce morton
taxotere
metastatic prostate cancer
chemotherapy
mark Kageyama
chemo
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