From Stage 4 Colorectal Cancer to Being Cancer-Free

Affable and quick-witted, Kyle David Rising-Moore faced colorectal cancer with fierce determination and an irreverent sense of humor. His cancer journey began with what he called textbook symptoms. Cramping. Hemorrhoids. Bleeding. “I was uncomfortably constipated,” muses the Miami resident.

After a colonoscopy at a private clinic in December 2023, Rising-Moore was led into a cold office. Groggy from anesthesia, he learned that four polyps had been found and removed. There was also a mass, but the physician wasn’t 100% sure it was cancer.

Rising-Moore was told that if it was cancer, it was slow moving, and he’d hear from someone in three months.

This didn’t sit well with him.

“I don’t do three-month-wait-and-hear,” he says.

Rising-Moore followed up on a friend’s suggestion to call Nivedh Paluvoi, M.D., a colorectal surgeon at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and clinical assistant professor of surgery at the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

After reviewing Rising-Moore’s results, Dr. Paluvoi wanted to see him right away.

“He said colorectal cancer is a fast mover,” Rising-Moore says. This was the opposite of what he’d been told at the clinic. After a CT scan and bloodwork, the results came back: stage 4 cancer that had spread to his liver. He met with surgical oncologist Jashodeep Datta, M.D., co-leader of the gastrointestinal site disease group at Sylvester, and oncologist Agustin Pimentel, M.D., assistant professor of clinical medicine at Sylvester, to put together a plan. “Dr. Pimentel said it’s an aggressive cancer,” says Rising-Moore, “and we’ve got to attack it.”

Rising-Moore began six rounds of chemotherapy followed by a complex, 11-hour surgical procedure that included a liver resection and ablation, gall bladder removal and a partial colectomy.

Post-surgery, Rising-Moore was scheduled for six more rounds of chemotherapy.

But after four, Dr. Pimentel pulled him out of it.

“My tests were coming back great,” says Rising-Moore. “Nothing in my margins, lymph nodes clean, the medicine worked.”

Rising-Moore credits his nurses for getting him up and moving on his own after surgery, as well as his physical therapists, Martin Otero and Jake Geary. “They have been true transformers in my rebound,” he says. “These two win a major award in my eyes for building me back up.”

One day, when Rising-Moore was in a packed waiting room before a chemotherapy session, he observed a boy sitting on his mother’s lap.

“He had a kid’s iPad,” Rising-Moore says. He also wore a wristband, so Rising-Moore knew that he, not his mother, was the patient. Rising-Moore overheard the boy tell his mother that they didn’t have enough money for a certain app.

That moment was transformative. “I learned that children get colon cancer,” he says. “It’s rare, but it can happen.” With that in mind, he is starting a foundation that will identify child colon cancer patients and send them a care package including an iPad, an Apple Store gift card and all the apps.

 “I found that being treated at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center gave me a voice,” says Rising-Moore, who today is busy with his husband, Edward “Eddy” Perez, going through the process of adopting a child. “Cancer happened to me for a reason.”

According to the National Cancer Institute, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the U.S., even though it is preventable with early screening.

As Rising-Moore transitions from a career in fine jewelry management to cancer advocacy, public speaking and writing, he’s been persuading friends to get coloscopies.

Last year, after appearing on a podcast about surviving cancer, he heard from a publisher who suggested he write a book. Beyond the Storm: A Life in Full Color is set for publication later this year. “It’s a memoir about how to face life’s darkest moments,” says Rising-Moore. “I want it to be for someone who is going through a divorce or lost a pet or lost their money on a bad investment. It’s for everybody.

I wrote it during hurricane season,” he says. “We see a hurricane coming. It wipes us out. And then we pick ourselves up.”

Louis Greenstein is a contributor to Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Tags: Cancer patient support, Chemotherapy success stories, Colorectal cancer treatment, Dr. Augustin Pimentel, Dr. Jashodeep Datta, Dr. Nivedh Paluvoi, Early cancer screening, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center