Baseball fan strikes out prostrate cancer
Litchfield resident Michael Santel, 75, a retired businessman and a diehard baseball fan who grew up down the street from Yogi Berra, has three distinct memories on his journey with cancer. He vividly remembers the moment three years ago when a doctor announced he had stage 4 prostate cancer. “I was totally destroyed,” he says. “That doctor gave me no hope.”
The second memory is better. He met with Jue Wang, MD, a specialist at Dignity Health Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s with expertise in personalized medicine, who reviewed his medical records and delivered a different prognosis. Recalls Michael, “Dr. Wang smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re going to beat this thing.’”
Two-and-a-half years later, Michael, along with his wife, Maria, sat anxiously in an exam room at the cancer institute as Dr. Wang and many other care providers filed into the room. “I thought, ‘This can’t be good,’” says Michael. Thankfully, he was wrong, making this third memory the best of all.
“Dr. Wang told me I was totally cleared of cancer. I was shocked and out of words!”
St. Joseph's experts treating with precision medicine
This triumph wouldn’t have been possible without Dr. Wang’s proficiency with precision medicine, especially because Michael was simultaneously being treated for pulmonary fibrosis, a serious lung condition. He wasn’t a good candidate for convention cancer therapies, because the two diagnoses put him at a very high risk for treatment-related side effects and complications, explained Dr. Wang.
“The precision medicine approach we designed for Michael’s unique situation achieved a complete remission of his cancer without any adverse events,” he said.
Cancer free and making memories
With a clean bill of health, Michael, who attended college on a baseball scholarship before managing a 45-year successful career in the franchise industry, has returned to adding great cancer-free memories to his life. He took Maria on a 25th-anniversary cruise in November, stays in touch with the couple’s eight kids (plus 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren), enjoys playing guitar in his quiet moments, and looks forward to post-COVID times when he can watch the Arizona Diamondbacks play at Chase Field again.
In the meantime, he is thankful for the compassion shared by everyone at St. Joseph’s. “First of all, they mean everything to me because they saved my life. But more than that, everyone there—from the valet to the registration people and nurses and doctors—are all so caring. Any day I had appointments at St. Joseph’s, I knew it was going to be a great happy day.”