Jack Leone is leaving his cancer in the desert.
Jack Leone is a powerful guy. As VP of Communications for Nevada Power and parent company Sierra Pacific, he leads the communication and marketing for a company serving more than 700,000 customers. Prior to that, he was a casino executive for 16 years with MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay and Caesars. He has a wife of 41 years, Angela, and two children, Mark and Danielle. He had never been sick a day in his life. He felt invincible. But that feeling was fleeting. Last spring Jack was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “I thought I was a superstar,” Leone says with a self-deprecating wink. “I was running 10K races and hiking. I never thought this could happen to me.” When it did happen, it happened quickly. “I went for my annual physical and the doctor said my PSA was a little high (6.5 compared to normal range of 0.0-4.0) but not to worry about it. So I didn’t. On the way out the nurse pulled me aside and said, ‘you really should have that checked.’ The look on her face scared me, so I followed up right away.”
Leone had a biopsy which showed he had fairly advanced disease indicated by his Gleason score of 10. (Gleason score is a system of grading prostate cancer cells based on how they look under a microscope. Gleason scores range from 2 to 10 and indicate how likely it is that a tumor will spread). It was at that time he was referred to Nevada Cancer Institute and met with an NVCI physician. “I was blown away by the personal attention from the staff and faculty at NVCI. The doctor spent several hours with me going over each treatment option, but he left the decision up to me.” For Leone it was a no-brainer. “I wanted to go after it. Be aggressive. Cut it out.”
Leone had surgery almost immediately. The good news was that the cancer had not spread to his lymph nodes. However, as an extra precautionary measure, doctors recommended an eight week course of radiation at NVCI using IMRT.
David Pomerantz, M.D., NVCI’s director of Radiation Oncology, is a proponent of IMRT. “IMRT increases the therapeutic ratio: it allows dose escalation to targets while minimizing the dose delivered to normal tissues.” As of his last PSA test, Leone is cancer free, but not carefree. “Heck yes I’m scared it could come back,” admits Leone. “I am more scared for my family than I am for me. But it has given me a greater appreciation for life. If it doesn’t come back, I’m glad I had it.”
