Built for the Long Race

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This is a guest post by Leah Fine whose husband, Ken Fine, was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. She describes how, as a triathlete, Ken managed kidney cancer by insisting on the life he wanted after it.

In December 2021, my husband Ken was in the best shape of his life. A lifelong competitive triathlete, he had earned a place at the triathlon world championship, a goal years in the making. The race had been scheduled for the summer of 2021, until COVID cancelled it and pushed his race date to the fall of 2022. So Ken did what endurance athletes do: he kept training, and he waited.

Ken also lives with polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a genetically inherited kidney condition. Though the disease creates long-term kidney function risk, he had it fully under control, and part of managing it well was routine imaging to keep an eye on his kidneys. That December, one of those routine scans showed something no one expected: renal cell carcinoma.

Shock, then a question

The diagnosis was a shock. Ken was fit, disciplined, and closely monitored. He had done “everything right”, and yet cancer found him anyway.

What Ken did next is the heart of his story. Rather than accept the first plan put in front of him, he sought opinions from five leading academic medical centers across the country. Each one of them confirmed the diagnosis: early-stage kidney cancer. All of the doctors recommended removing the entire kidney because the tumor was deemed “inoperable” as it was wrapped around the artery feeding the kidney.

Removing the kidney was, in many ways, the easy answer. It was the straightforward, low-risk way to deal with the tumor in front of them. Ken was busy balancing work and competitive triathlon with a packed schedule.  It would have been the fastest, simplest solution. But Ken was asking a bigger question. For someone living with PKD, healthy kidney tissue is precious, and living the rest of his life with a single kidney carried its own long-term risks. Ken was not willing to compromise and sought a treatment plan that served what mattered most to him.

I was committed to finding someone who prioritized my needs as a patient and an individual. This was my life and my future.

Ken Fine

“I was committed to finding someone who prioritized my needs as a patient and an individual,” Ken said. “This was my life and my future, and this decision was not about what was easiest or low risk for the surgeon.”

His goal was clear: to live the longest, healthiest life possible, and for him, that life included competitive triathlon. He was not willing to trade his quality of life for the simplest surgical answer.

Finding the right team

Ken continued his research and discussions with medical experts. He made sure every doctor he met understood who he was and what he was trying to achieve. 

It mattered enormously to Ken and his family that this surgeon and the team were confident they could work toward the outcome Ken had described. They didn’t just treat the tumor. They took on his goals as their own.

Eventually, Ken met the surgical team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who offered the best hope. 

“When I first met Ken, his determination and competitive drive were obvious, and they shaped how he approached his newly discovered kidney mass. Before we talked about treatment, we talked about his goals: what mattered most to him and what he wanted life to look like afterward. Those priorities guided every decision that followed. I was as determined to save his kidney as he was,” said Dr. Anobel Odisho, MD, MPH, an Associate Professor of Urology, Epidemiology, and Medicine at UCSF.

“The tumor sat in a technically difficult location, and Ken had already been told by other surgeons that it couldn’t be removed safely. We reviewed his scans together, walking through the anatomy, the risks, and the options. We decided a robot-assisted partial nephrectomy was worth attempting.”  

Ken felt confident with this partnership. Dr. Odisho committed to attempt to remove only the tumor and do the procedure laparoscopically to minimize surgical impact.

Ken had his surgery on May 9, 2022, and it was a success. The pathology report brought a sobering confirmation of the timing: the tumor had been removed just in time, appearing to be on the brink of spreading. 

The lesson here for Ken was to take personal responsibility for his health, his treatment and to advocate for himself when expert opinions did not align with his goals. “I was thrilled and grateful to Dr. Odisho and the UCSF team for this outcome. By expressing my goals directly and making shared decisions, I preserved the life I had built and the future I envisioned.”

Six months to the start line

The world championship was now just six months away, in Abu Dhabi, UAE in November 2022.

Ken approached recovery with the same patience he brings to a long race. For the first two months, he let his body heal and did not rush into training. Then he began reintroducing workouts slowly, rebuilding strength and endurance week by week.

That November, he stood on the start line in Abu Dhabi. Racing at a world championship is a lifetime achievement for any athlete. Doing it six months after cancer surgery made it something more. Ken didn’t just finish. He had one of the best races of his life.

“The Sponge”

Most importantly, Ken remains cancer-free today.

Now 58, he has raced in several more world championship events since Abu Dhabi. He continues to study everything he can about optimizing his health after cancer, and about training smarter in each of triathlon’s three sports – swimming, biking, and running. His curiosity is so relentless that his coach nicknamed him “the Sponge.”

“Today Ken has no evidence of cancer,” Dr. Odisho said. “Our follow-up visits now mostly involve talking about his races, both the ones he’s finished and the ones he’s training for.”

“On race day mornings, I now reflect on the gratitude I have for making it to another starting line,” Ken said. “That is the victory.”

What Ken’s story can offer others

Every person’s cancer is different, and the right treatment depends on each individual’s diagnosis and health. But Ken’s experience highlights something every patient can carry into the exam room:

• Advocate for yourself.  Know what you want your life to look like after treatment, and say it out loud. Ken’s care team couldn’t plan for his goals until they knew them.
  
• Make sure your team understands your lifestyle and personal priorities. For Ken, preserving kidney function and getting back to competition weren’t extras. They were the point.
  
• It is okay to seek more opinions. Ken heard different recommendations from different experts, and that range of perspectives helped him find the path that fit.
  
• Look for a true partner. The right team is one that takes your goals seriously and works alongside you to reach them.

Ken didn’t just survive kidney cancer. He came through it on his own terms, and he’s still racing.