Monday night at the Coaches vs. Cancer Las Vegas Golf Classic has turned into a special evening for all involved. The mission of the Classic takes center stage as the patients and doctors of Comprehensive Cancer Centers are featured.
“As fun as these few days are each year, nothing is more important than the mission of saving lives,” said Lon Kruger, event founder and chair. “Comprehensive Cancer Centers continues to support this event and keeps patients at the center of everything they do. We absolutely love our partnership.”
This evening will spotlight Norm Clarke, a famed journalist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal who wrote a man-about-town column called “Vegas Confidential” and was a Pulitzer Prize nominee for the Associated Press. He covered the Cincinnati Reds during the Pete Rose era and was The AP’s coordinator of coverage of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was in charge of the AP coverage team in 1978 that received the Pulitzer Prize nomination for the collapse of a nuclear power plant cooling tower in West Virginia, in which 66 construction workers died.
During his illustrious 17-year stint with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he broke Britney Spears’ 55-hour marriage and Michael Jackson’s surprise move to Las Vegas to launch a comeback, you would never know that Norm was battling prostate cancer. Norm was diagnosed in 2002, and during his first year in treatment, he couldn’t walk, could hardly talk and was in a wheelchair. Radiation burned his insides and rendered his bladder useless. Norm was in bad shape when he received a call from Siegfried & Roy’s publicist Frank Lieberman, who recommended he see Dr. Stephen Miller, who ultimately referred him to Dr. Edwin Kingsley of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada.
Dr. Kingsley has been treating Norm for 20 years. In that time, Norm married his wife, Cara, giving them more than 20 years of happy memories together. Norm is now on his second clinical trial for his stage 4 prostate cancer and is pleased to report he is doing well. He is mostly pain-free and his PSA is down to a 2.1. While Norm will never be cancer free, he is proof that cancer can be treated as a long-term chronic illness and not a death sentence. Norm’s advice to other men out there, get the PSA test, trust your doctor and the process, and be open to clinical trials because it can not only extend your life, but it can also advance science.
“Our patients are the reason we do what we do – and the Coaches vs. Cancer Las Vegas Golf Classic is such a pride point for our physicians, staff and, certainly, the community as a whole,” said Paul Dieter, chief executive officer of Comprehensive. “This event provides a special opportunity to recognize our patients’ and their families’ inspiring stories.”
Comprehensive is a multi-specialty practice offering medical oncology, hematology, radiation oncology, breast surgery, pulmonary medicine, cancer genetic counseling and clinical research to patients in Southern Nevada. The practice has 44 physicians, 15 advanced practice providers and 11 treatment centers and offices throughout Southern Nevada.
Comprehensive prides itself on its extensive research program that brings groundbreaking clinical research trials to the community. The practice, which partners with institutions such as UCLA TRIO-US, The US Oncology Network, USC, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and leading pharmaceutical companies, participates in more than 100 Phase I, II & III clinical research studies each year, and has contributed to the development of more than 100 FDA-approved cancer therapies.
