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Over the last 11 years, Katy Tucker has endured a nephrectomy, Gamma Knife? radiosurgery and six chemotherapy drugs. And though the 71-year-old¡¯s kidney cancer treatment continues, she remains as upbeat as ever.

¡°I¡¯m blessed. I know I¡¯m blessed,¡± she says.

A stage IV kidney cancer diagnosis

Katy was getting ready to run a half-marathon at age 60 when she woke up one morning in January 2006 with a sharp pain on her left side.

¡°I called my doctor and he said, ¡®Go to the ER because it sounds like kidney stones,¡¯¡± she recalls.

But a CT scan revealed a tumor larger than an orange on her left kidney. She had stage IV renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer.

¡°We were shocked. It was the furthest thing from my mind,¡± says the yoga and swim instructor who¡¯d always kept up with her physicals and screenings.

 ¡°We came home and my dear husband went to the computer and printed everything about renal cell carcinoma. It wasn¡¯t more than three minutes before he says, ¡®I¡¯m taking this away. We¡¯re not going to read it,¡¯¡± she says. ¡°I put more weight on the positives and my husband does, too.¡±

Stage IV kidney cancer treatment

The following week, Katy and her husband met with who determined her tumor was too big for laparoscopic surgery; so a few weeks later, on February 15, 2006, , surgically removed Katy¡¯s left kidney. She showed no evidence of disease for nine months, until a CT scan showed that the cancer had returned to the site of her surgery and spread to her lungs.

Since then, it¡¯s been a rollercoaster ride.

Under the care of , Katy has switched from one chemotherapy drug and clinical trial to the next as her cancer disappeared and returned over the next 10 years. She¡¯s taken sorafenib, interlukin-2, sunitinib, everolimus and the immunotherapy drug nivolumab.

When she learned that her cancer had metastasized to her brain in October 2016, , successfully treated all five cancerous spots in a single Gamma Knife radiosurgery session. This non-invasive treatment uses tiny radiation beams to accurately target brain tumors with a single high dose of radiation. While she didn¡¯t experience any side effects, she wasn¡¯t able to practice yoga for a couple weeks and was restricted from driving for three days.

She¡¯s currently taking axitinib to treat some cancerous spots that have returned to the area where her left kidney was, as well as her right kidney and right lung.  Though they¡¯ve all been tolerable, she¡¯s dealt with mouth sores, neuropathy in her fingers and low white blood cell counts.

Still, Katy is thankful for every day that greets her and the unwavering support she¡¯s received from her care team.

¡°My husband and I, we¡¯re a team to start with -- we¡¯ll be married 50 years this December. Our kids, they¡¯re part of our team, and MD Anderson is part of our team in this also,¡± she says. ¡°We¡¯re all fighting this deadly disease together.¡±

Dealing with two cancer diagnoses in a family

And now, Katy¡¯s care team will be fighting twice as hard against cancer. In May, her husband Mike was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He recently began treatment under the care of

¡°Devastated? Of course we are,¡± Katy says. ¡°But we¡¯re at the right place.¡±

She and Mike are dealing with their diagnoses the only way they know how: by living as normally as possible. He recently returned from a road trip with their grandson, while she still teaches yoga and swimming classes several times a week.

As Katy says, ¡°We keep moving on, and we keep fighting.¡±

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