Great White guitarist Mark Kendall has delivered another round of good news in his fight against advanced kidney cancer, telling fans that his tumor has shrunk dramatically — from 13 centimeters down to just four — with no signs of the disease spreading.
Kendall‘s diagnosis came after he noticed persistent blood in his urine. He’s since been treated with a combination of Keytruda, an immunotherapy infusion, and the daily pill Lenvima, both of which work by helping the immune system attack cancer cells.
On Sunday, June 28, Kendall posted an upbeat update on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“My tumor has shrunk to 4 centimeters starting at 13! Things are going in the right direction. My goal is ‘no sign of the disease!'” he wrote.
Back in April, Kendall detailed his treatment during an interview with “I Ask No One With Kevin Re LoVullo”, explaining how he tracked down the right specialists and how the therapy has steadily knocked the cancer back.
“Yeah, it’s getting better. It’s pretty amazing. I called this friend of mine in Chicago, who’s a neurologist, to see if he knew anybody in California that was a kidney guy. And he did. He turned me on this guy, Dr. Shuch, from UCLA, and I got together with the doctor. And they put me on immunotherapy, which is an infusion, and I take daily pills. The infusion medicine’s called Keytruda. And I take Lenvima daily. And what it does, it does something to the immune system that attacks the cancer. And so it keeps shrinking. Now it’s isolated in my kidney, because what leaked into my ribs, they could use radiation. So I did three days of radiation, and it just wiped it out. So now it’s just isolated in my kidney about that big; it’s five centimeters. So I start to feel better every time I get the news that it’s small,” he explained at the time.
Kendall was candid about the dread that hit him when he was first diagnosed, and how his doctors helped him reframe what he’s dealing with.
“You get in your head a little bit, like, ‘Am I dying? What’s going on?’, especially when I was first diagnosed,” he continued. “The ‘C’ word has always been the word I wanted to stay away from. So when I was diagnosed, it was scary. And so I wanted to get more information on it before it went public or whatever. And then, when it shrunk to eight centimeters, then I told the fans, ‘Hey, got this thing.’ But my doctor told me that what I have is manageable. People have it for decades and are able to control it because it’s not a deal like with prostate cancer and you don’t know you have it. It spreads all over your body and you have no chance. This is a deal where I can fight it and it’s gonna keep getting little. So that’s kind of a good thing. They told me, ‘If you ever get cancer, you kind of wanna get thyroid cancer or kidney cancer.’ Not that you wanna get it, but if you do, this is something that’s more controllable.”
The guitarist said his recovery is showing in how he feels day to day.
“So I’m doing good. I feel good. I’ve lost some weight, and I’ve gained 10 pounds back. So I’m eating pretty good. Yeah, it takes a minute. I’ve never been at this weight since I was, like, 15, so it’s kind of weird. People are telling me, ‘You look great, man.’ I’m going, ‘Yeah. Oh, thanks. I got cancer.’ But, yeah, I’m really grateful that things are going good with what I have,” he said.
He also reflected on the family history behind his diagnosis.
“I was hoping I could dodge cancer, but both my parents had it, so I guess when it’s in your blood, it’s hard to avoid,” Kendall added.
