2009 was a very tough year for my family and me. First, in March my wife’s annual mammogram revealed a Stage 1 breast cancer in her left breast. Seven months later, I got diagnosed with kidney cancer. This is when I started to look into a potential connection between kidney cancer, mesothelioma and asbestos exposure. I was 37 years old.

Two cancer diagnoses in the same family within seven months, is unusual. We obviously freaked out and thought that there must be a common cause. Apparently, we were convinced that the problem must be in our immediate living environment, in other words, our house. I forgot to mention that our dog had cancer, too and died in 2008. We had our house tested for environmental toxins, but other than a slightly elevated radon level – which was still well within the permissible range – everything came back clear.

My wife and I were determined to get to the bottom of this, after all our two kids are still living with us and the last thing we wanted to happen, is them getting sick, too. So long story short: we learned a lot about cancer. My wife had a total of three surgeries until the margins came back clear.
My left kidney was completely consumed by a large tumor that had literally eaten the organ. There was no chance to safe it. I therefore had a laparoscopic radical nephrectomy done in at the University of Columbia – New York Presbyterian Hospital. When we received the pathology of my cancer tumor, it turned out that my Renal Cell Carcinoma had been probably growing since 20 years already.

This was a very important finding for us for two reasons. First of all, we were able to conclusively determine, that my wife’s cancer and my cancer have not been triggered by the same cause, since we only knew each other for 4.5 years when we got diagnosed. Secondly, I realized that about 20 years ago I was exposed to asbestos on a daily basis, to rather high concentrations. Therefore, could it theoretically be that there is a connection between kidney cancer and asbestos? The answer is: yes, absolutely. Even though, is important to note, that I have no evidence that my cancer was caused by the asbestos, however, there is indeed a possibility.

I remember too well when I helped my father installing grey asbestos sheets on the walls of our house. Those sheets were relatively light, but very sturdy. We had to cut and trim them to a size that allowed us to mount them in a certain pattern. To this day I can still smell and taste the asbestos dust particles that got airborne when we worked on those sheets. Of course, I did not wear any protection gear, because back then, the danger of inhaling the toxic fibers were not know to us. Hence, for over one year I inhaled and ingested a hazardous mix of air and asbestos. What probably made it even worse was the fact that my bedroom was in the basement, and that’s were we handled the asbestos sheets.

Asbestos is usually associated with mesothelioma. However, the fact of the matter is that there is a variety of other very serious health conditions that are caused by the exposure to the material. Asbestosis, for example, is a chronic impairment of the respiratory system. Lung cancer, cancer of the colon and other malignant gastrointestinal diseases can be caused by asbestos exposure, too.

Again, I do not know for sure if my cancer of the kidney is related to asbestos. And even if I was able to find it out, it wouldn’t chance anything at this point. My left kidney is gone. What saved my life was the fact that I didn’t waste any time after I encountered blood in my urine. I went to see and urologist immediately and I was sent for a CAT-Scan. A subsequent cystoscopy confirmed the kidney cancer diagnosis.

But my research made me aware that in the United States, people in the thousands still get diagnosed with mesothelioma every year, primarily due to occupational exposure to asbestos. Even though the government introduced rules to regulate the contact to the material, there is still a lot of work to be done until this form of cancer will be eradicated.