Overcoming the odds stacked against him: Bill’s Story

“Mr. Bobey, you have metastatic colorectal cancer. There are tumours in your colon, liver and lung. We need to start your treatment plan as soon as possible.”

It also came with a sobering prognosis – a 50 per cent five-year survival rate. So, he needed a medical team who would be willing to push the boundaries of available treatment pathways. Two weeks later, he met Dr. Christine Brezden-Masley, a medical oncologist at St. Michael’s Hospital who was determined to help him overcome the odds stacked against him. So, when Dr. Brezden-Masley took on the role of Medical Director of the Cancer Program for Sinai Health, Bill chose to follow her to Mount Sinai Hospital.    

Dr. Brezden-Masley is a leading specialist in cancer care and research, with a focus on breast and gastrointestinal cancers, and she is widely recognized for her innovative approaches to cancer treatments. She proposed an aggressive 12-month treatment plan to help Bill meet his main objective – to be there for his children as they grew up.  

“I can’t recall much about hearing that prognosis,” says Bill. “I know I felt nothing and 
everything simultaneously, and it crystallized what matters most: my family. I also 
grappled with two contrasting emotions. I felt isolated, yet not alone, and held on to a 
strong sense of hope.” 

The uphill road towards remission

The months following his diagnosis were a whirlwind of tests and chemo and radiation therapies. He had surgery that removed a third of his liver and left him with a 30 cm hockey-stick-shaped incision across his lower right abdomen. He finished his chemotherapy and had surgery to remove part of his lung. His family celebrated his son’s first birthday.

His health improved significantly. Symptoms like nausea and taste loss subsided and his energy levels increased.

It was at this point that Dr. Brezden-Masley announced that she would be transitioning to work at Mount Sinai Hospital. Bill and his family had built so much trust in Dr. Brezden-Masley and confidence in her responsive, personal approach to care that they decided to make the transition with her. Being able to maintain that continuity of care was important to them as they continued their journey.  

“My family certainly felt that [Dr. Brezden-Masley] was trying to bring us to the future,” says Bill. “She was trying to figure out what boundaries my body would physically and mentally allow us to go to. Not focusing on what the statistical data said, but focusing on me as an individual, my family as an individual family, and trying to push forward as far into the unknown as we had to go to take care of it.”

Things were going well until an MRI discovered a new mass on Bill’s liver. He was sent back to surgery to remove it in November 2019 – almost two years after his initial diagnosis. In March 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill needed more chemotherapy and a third liver surgery. But tight pandemic restrictions kept him on a waitlist.  

After weeks of waiting, Bill received a date for his liver surgery. He returned to chemo a month after his successful surgery – one final push to clear any cancer cells that might be lingering. But he had an allergic reaction to the treatments. He developed chemo-induced colitis, a painful inflammation of the large intestine’s mucous membrane that can cause lethargy, weakness, abdominal spasms, constipation and/or diarrhea. He lost 15 pounds in 48 hours. He rushed to the emergency room. His body was exhausted.

In consultation with his medical team, Bill stopped the chemotherapy. They couldn’t find any more cancer cells and they didn’t want to push his body any further. He had entered a new phase of his journey. After almost three years of fighting – he was in remission.

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Bill’s commitment to breaking down stigma and sharing hope

In December, Bill’s family celebrated his son’s seventh birthday. He is entering his fourth year of being cancer free and continues to be carefully monitored by Sinai Health’s expert colorectal surgeons and oncologists. He’s deeply grateful to the health teams that have helped him get to the point he’s at today and now wants to share his experience to bring encouragement to others navigating their own cancer journeys.  

Typically, colorectal cancer is diagnosed in adults over 50, but recent studies show growing rates of the disease in younger populations.¹ Canadians born after 1980, are two to 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer before the age of 50 than previous generations at the same age.² Bill, who had no family history of the disease and was in good health, is eager to spread awareness of the symptoms and options for screenings and treatments.  

“I think there’s still a discomfort of wanting to talk about certain kinds of cancers, and colorectal cancer is one of them,” says Bill. “When I share my story, there’s a level of wanting to normalize the diagnosis. But also wanting to share the hope and encouragement that there are these incredible treatment pathways that are being developed by doctors like Dr. Brezden-Masley at Mount Sinai.”

Some of the things that stand out to Bill about his experience at Sinai Health is the compassion and courage that his health team embodied and the collaborative approach they took – ensuring he felt involved in the decision making about his care.  

“At Mount Sinai, there was an expectation of us advocating for ourselves,” he says. “If we were going to find ourselves at the edge of the map in terms of what we were going to do to get to the other side, I had to have the confidence to give my medical team honest and direct feedback on how my treatment was going and what I was willing to do.”

“It’s a challenging and very personal decision how you approach your cancer journey. If you're in it, don't be afraid to speak for yourself. Listen to yourself and know that you have a voice. You have agency in your treatment.”

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. For more information about Colorectal Cancer for individuals living in Ontario, including information on prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment please visit cancercareontario.ca.

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_{¹ Brenner DR, Heer E, Sutherland RL, Ruan Y, Tinmouth J, Heitman SJ, Hilsden RJ. National Trends in Colorectal Cancer Incidence Among Older and Younger Adults in Canada. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Jul 3;2(7):e198090. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.8090. PMID: 31365108; PMCID: PMC6669779.}

_{² De Vera MA, Gill S, Ashamalla S, Schiller D, Brenner DR, Wong C, Wildgoose P, Esplen MJ, Lieu C, Fitzpatrick R, O'Sullivan DE, Servidio-Italiano F. Early-Age-Onset Colorectal Cancer in Canada: Evidence, Issues and Calls to Action. Curr Oncol. 2022 Apr 29;29(5):3149-3159. doi: 10.3390/curroncol29050256. PMID: 35621646; PMCID: PMC9140191.}