When I was in my 20s, people referred to cancer as the “Big C.” Back then, there weren’t many treatment options, and the prognosis wasn’t good.  But my recent stage IV kidney cancer diagnosis has shown me how far medicine has come over the last five decades.

In March 2015, I developed a persistent dry cough. My family doctor spent five months trying to cure it. After nothing worked, he ordered a chest X-ray. It showed a mass...