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B.G. city councilor to have cancer surgery

Bill Ganley had tumor removed a year ago

By Marissa Harshman, Columbian Health Reporter
Published: January 14, 2011, 12:00am

Battle Ground City Councilman and longtime high school teacher Bill Ganley is beginning 2011 much like he began 2010: with surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

About this time last year, Ganley underwent a nine-hour surgery to remove a 12-inch, six-pound carcinoid tumor from his kidney.

Today, the 51-year-old will go under the knife again. This time he faces a six-hour surgery to remove three or four, possibly more, carcinoid tumors on his liver.

Despite the need for another surgery, Ganley remains upbeat.

“I’m positive. It’s something you just live with,” he said. “You look at life differently.”

Just days after Christmas in 2009, Ganley and his now-wife Brenda Alling announced their engagement. Before heading to Cannon Beach, Ore., to celebrate, Ganley visited the urgent care clinic to get checked out for pain in his back. Initially, doctors thought Ganley had kidney stones but needed a CT scan to be sure.

The scan revealed a 12-inch tubular tumor in Ganley’s abdomen. The tumor was on Ganley’s kidney and attached to a vein leading to the right atrium of his heart.

Doctors suspected renal cancer but additional tests revealed Ganley had a rare form of cancer. With carcinoid cancer, the related tumors are typically small and slow-growing.

The large tumor in Ganley’s abdomen had likely been growing for years, possibly decades, he said. Doctors discovered the cancer had metastasized and spread to his bone and liver.

Ganley has tumors on his skull, shoulder, spine and hip. He’ll live with those tumors unless they grow and cause discomfort, then doctors can use radiation to get rid of them, he said.

The surgery today will remove the tumors from his liver, the most dangerous place for carcinoid tumors to grow, Ganley said.

While the tumors are removable, the cancer is not.

“I’ll never be cancer-free,” Ganley said.

To manage and prevent the growth of the tumors, Ganley receives a hormone shot every 28 days. He will continue to receive the shots for the rest of his life.

“You’ve gotta live with it,” Ganley said. “And at some time, it’s going to beat the medicine.”

If the shots become ineffective, Ganley said there are other medicines. Those, however, come with side effects, which Ganley has avoided with the current treatment.

Ganley goes to the gym and is running up to 5 miles. He feels healthy, isn’t losing his hair and doesn’t look sick. Because of his active lifestyle and appearance, people are often confused when they learn Ganley has cancer.

“You tell people you have cancer, and they look at you different,” he said.

After surgery, Ganley will spend a day or two in the intensive care unit at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He’ll then spend a few more days in the hospital before returning to his Battle Ground home.

Ganley will take six weeks off from his social studies teaching job at Summit View High School and his various public service positions. Ganley taught and coached track at Battle Ground High School for 28 years before moving to Summit View this fall.

Ganley serves on the Battle Ground City Council, a position he’s held since 1993. He was mayor for four years from 1997-2001. Ganley also represents the city on the countywide C-Tran Board and Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council.

Once he’s recovered, Ganley plans to continue his community service.

“I enjoy working on city council and trying to make Battle Ground a better place to live,” he said.

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.

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Columbian Health Reporter