Connected Cancer Care: Joe's Story of a Clear Path Forward After Testicular Cancer

It start­ed like any oth­er day. Joe D. went to his rou­tine doctor’s appoint­ment expect­ing a quick vis­it and some stan­dard bloodwork.

“I didn’t have any symp­toms or con­cerns going into my check-up,” he recalls. ​“It was just a nor­mal phys­i­cal for work.”

But dur­ing the exam, his doc­tor noticed some­thing unex­pect­ed — a lump on his left testicle.

“She wasn’t alarmed at first, but she want­ed me to get an ultra­sound just to be safe,” Joe said.

What had start­ed as a sim­ple check-up sud­den­ly felt heav­ier. The ultra­sound raised con­cerns, and Joe was referred to a urol­o­gist. A fam­i­ly friend rec­om­mend­ed James Kim, MD, FACS, at Duly, telling him, ​“That’s who you want to see.”

Joe’s appoint­ment with Dr. Kim came quick­ly. He ordered blood­work to bet­ter under­stand what was hap­pen­ing, so Joe and his mom went straight from his office to a near­by Duly loca­tion that Fri­day. By Sun­day, Dr. Kim called with the results, and the words hung in the air: a diag­no­sis of tes­tic­u­lar cancer.

“That’s when every­thing became very real,” Joe said. ​“He reas­sured us. He said not to pan­ic, that this can­cer is high­ly cur­able, and that I was going to be okay. But hear­ing can­cer is still terrifying.”

Even as the diag­no­sis sank in, Dr. Kim’s calm guid­ance helped Joe feel ground­ed. He asked about any back pain, some­thing Joe had been attribut­ing to his mat­tress, pos­ture at work, or workouts.

“Dr. Kim explained that tes­tic­u­lar can­cer often spreads first to the back,” Joe recalls. ​“He sus­pect­ed it had reached my lymph nodes and imme­di­ate­ly ordered a CT scan.”

Care That Moves With Pre­ci­sion and Heart

The CT con­firmed Dr. Kim’s sus­pi­cion — the can­cer had spread to a lymph node in Joe’s low­er back. Surgery to remove his left tes­ti­cle was sched­uled quick­ly, and the rapid pace of care became an unex­pect­ed comfort.

“From the first moment, the Duly Health and Care team set a stan­dard few could match,” Joe said. ​“Every­thing moved fast and pre­cise in the best way possible.”

The fol­low­ing weeks were a whirl­wind. Joe under­went surgery, fol­lowed by mul­ti­ple rounds of chemother­a­py. Each step was han­dled with coor­di­na­tion, clar­i­ty, and compassion.

“The nurs­es at Duly were phe­nom­e­nal,” he said. ​“They are car­ing, they have big hearts, and they are in your cor­ner. They made the expe­ri­ence feel man­age­able, one day at a time.”

Even logis­ti­cal details were han­dled with sensitivity.

“Ini­tial­ly, we thought we would have to trav­el far for chemo,” Joe recalls. ​“They resched­uled every­thing to the Lisle loca­tion, just 35 min­utes from home. That made a huge dif­fer­ence. It was one less stress dur­ing an already over­whelm­ing time.”

Build­ing a Team You Can Trust

While Joe wait­ed for results, Dr. Kim was already coor­di­nat­ing with trust­ed col­leagues at Duly’s Bri­an Moran Can­cer Insti­tute Cen­ter for Gen­i­touri­nary (GU) Can­cer Care. Dr. Kim quick­ly con­nect­ed with med­ical oncol­o­gist Bri­an Myre, MD, who spe­cial­izes and gen­i­touri­nary can­cers, and uro­log­ic sur­gi­cal oncol­o­gist Ranko Mio­ci­novic, MD.

“These are the guys I want you with,” he told Joe. Hav­ing a con­nect­ed, ready team in place was a life­line in a moment of fear.

Ahead of Joe’s appoint­ment with Dr. Myre, he was full of worry.

“We didn’t know what to expect, and we had so many ques­tions,” Joe said. ​“Going into that meet­ing, I was ter­ri­fied about what my road looked like.”

But that fear shift­ed the moment Dr. Myre walked in.

“After we met with Dr. Myre for the first time, we knew we were with the right oncol­o­gist,” Joe said. ​“His con­fi­dence, kind­ness, and over­all back­ground made us feel so comfortable.”

One moment that stood out clear­ly was learn­ing that Dr. Myre com­plet­ed his fel­low­ship at Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty under the leg­endary Dr. Lawrence Ein­horn, the oncol­o­gist who cured Lance Arm­strong and devel­oped the chemother­a­py reg­i­men still used today for tes­tic­u­lar cancer.

“As soon as we heard that, we knew we had the right guy.”

Through­out Joe’s entire treat­ment, Dr. Myre guid­ed him.

“Dr. Myre was the one spear­head­ing my time­line,” he said. ​“I am for­ev­er grate­ful to him.”

Learn more about the lat­est com­pre­hen­sive, mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary can­cer care and clin­i­cal tri­als pro­vid­ed by Duly’s Bri­an Moran Can­cer Institute.

A Sec­ond Anchor in the Journey

Ear­ly in Joe’s care, Dr. Myre arranged for him to meet Dr. Ranko Mio­ci­novic, ensur­ing Joe had a full team in place.

“Dr. Myre wasn’t sure yet if we would need Dr. Mio­ci­novic, but he want­ed us to asso­ciate a name with a face,” Joe said. ​“The com­pas­sion, con­fi­dence, and trust that Dr. Mio­ci­novic pro­vid­ed me was sec­ond to none.”

After Joe com­plet­ed three rounds of chemother­a­py, he need­ed a retroperi­toneal lymph node dis­sec­tion (RPLND) to remove what remained in the affect­ed lymph nodes. The deci­sion to move for­ward with Dr. Mio­ci­novic came naturally.

“We con­sult­ed with Dr. Mio­ci­novic and felt extreme­ly con­fi­dent hav­ing him con­duct the pro­ce­dure,” Joe said.

“The RPLND is a high­ly tech­ni­cal sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure per­formed at only a few insti­tu­tions in Illi­nois,” said Dr. Bri­an Myre. ​“It is need­ed in cas­es of sus­pect­ed ter­atoma, a com­po­nent of some tes­tic­u­lar can­cers that isn’t erad­i­cat­ed with chemother­a­py. The surgery requires excep­tion­al pre­ci­sion and train­ing, and Dr. Mio­ci­novic is one of the elite sur­geons in our area capa­ble of doing this at the high­est level.”

The surgery was a success. 

“Dr. Mio­ci­novic and Dr. Myre played a HUGE role in sav­ing my life. I could not rec­om­mend their ser­vices enough.”

A Team That Made Him Feel Safe

Through­out his jour­ney, Joe felt informed, sup­port­ed, and con­fi­dent in his care.

“I nev­er felt like I need­ed a sec­ond opin­ion,” he said. ​“With this team, I always felt like I was in the right place, with the right peo­ple, at the right time.”

By the end of treat­ment, all tests came back clear.

“I am for­ev­er grate­ful,” Joe said. ​“It’s not just the med­i­cine; it’s the peo­ple. The con­fi­dence, the com­pas­sion, the atten­tion to every detail — it makes all the difference.”

Mov­ing For­ward With Gratitude

For Joe, the exper­tise of Dr. Myre, Dr. Mio­ci­novic, Dr. Kim, and the entire Duly team was life-changing.

“If some­one has tes­tic­u­lar can­cer, I could not rec­om­mend Dr. Myre, Dr. Mio­ci­novic, and the Duly Health team enough. From the top down, every­one does what is best for the patient and fam­i­ly. It is care that feels personal.”

“From that first phone call to the final fol­low-up,” he added, ​“I always knew some­one was look­ing out for me. That made all the dif­fer­ence in the world.”