Rob’ s story began in 2014, when he felt an unusual pain in his leg. After seeing multiple doctors, he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He had also been experiencing headaches. During that same appointment, he learned the cancer had spread to his neck and brain. His doctor referred him to Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Rob and Lyddia discussed next steps. After speaking with a colleague, Lyddia felt confident that Huntsman Cancer Institute was the right decision. A week later, they met with Dr. Akerley and his team.
Dr. Akerley confirmed the diagnosis but offered Rob options— including an aggressive approach with chemotherapy and radiation.
Rob said,“ Let’ s try that. I want to stay alive for my grandkids.”
Social post by Lyddia
Rob began with radiation treatments to his brain and neck. He underwent stereotactic brain radiation under the care of Gita Suneja, MD, MS, a radiation oncologist at Huntsman Cancer Institute. She treated all seven brain metastases in one afternoon. Rob also underwent daily radiation for the tumor on his neck— roughly the size of a baseball.
“ She saved his brain, and the neck tumor vanished,” Lyddia says.
After that, Rob was treated by Randy Jensen, MD, PhD, co-director of the Neurologic Cancers Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
“ Both [ Dr. Akerley and Dr. Jensen ] deserve to be saints. They’ ve saved so many people’ s lives and eased so many people’ s minds who have cancer by dealing with them with great bedside manner,” Rob says.“ They’ ll tell you like it is and let you make the decisions on your treatment, which is amazing.”