A History Buff Gets Cancer Treatment of the Future

Armed with a clinical trial and advanced surgery, Shaun fights the battle against lung and pancreatic cancer.

When Shaun Grenan lived in Gettysburg, Penn., years ago, he loved participating in historical war reenactments.

That passion for experiencing an era long past didn’t stop Shaun from seeking the latest treatment possible when he found himself facing a real-life foe: Stage 3 lung cancer in 2016.

Nearly a decade ago, Shaun—who now lives in Plymouth with his wife, Sara, and their two sons, Willie and Tajaun, whom they adopted after first fostering them—experienced a sudden bout of coughing during a hiking trip in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The cough lingered for weeks, and a strong medication prescribed by the first doctor he saw did nothing to ease it. Eventually, chest scans and further testing revealed the unthinkable: a malignant tumor the size of a softball on Shaun’s left lung.

“They told me that the tumor was pressed against my heart and even protruding out on my side,” he said.

Shaun watched his grandfather and aunt pass away from lung cancer, yet no one in Shaun’s family smokes, including him. As a non-smoker, Shaun falls into the 15% of those diagnosed with lung cancer who never smoked cigarettes.

Going into battle against a lung tumor

Shaun immediately sought reinforcements, getting a second opinion on his case from another hospital, which offered the 36-year-old at that time, a grim prognosis. At Henry Ford Cancer, though, he met a forward-thinking oncology team that offered him options.

His medical oncologist thought he would qualify for a clinical trial of an immunotherapy drug that could drastically improve his outcome. The first dose of the drug made Shaun extremely ill — hospitalized him for five days, in fact — but it shrank his tumor enough that he was able to have it surgically removed using advanced, minimally invasive surgical techniques to effectively remove the tumor without breaking or spreading Shaun’s ribs.

The post-surgery tactical plan included intense chemotherapy: eight hours of chemo one day, followed by three hours the next — for six doses to keep the cancer from coming back. “I was the youngest person in there!” he exclaimed while describing the visits to the chemotherapy treatments.

Although the cancer and treatment regimen took a lot out of him physically, Shaun shared that the diagnosis was debilitating in other ways.

The fight was taking a toll on Shaun’s busy life. “I was on leave from my job. My immune system was shot. I missed my brother’s wedding because I was in the hospital. I spent my birthday getting treatment,” he remembers

A new plan of attack after lung cancer treatment

The aggressive plan has left Shaun without evidence of lung cancer. However, in 2022, Shaun would face a new cancer battle when routine monitoring revealed pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, Shaun had his Henry Ford medical team by his side, including David Kwon, M.D., division head, Surgical Oncology and clinical director, Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer, who was successful in surgically removing the tumor from his pancreas in January of 2023.

Dr. Kwon explains despite the serious diagnosis, Shaun was fortunate that the pancreatic cancer did not spread to organs like the spleen which has a lower survival rate.

He adds that with a complicated cancer history with Shaun’s prior lung cancer, a thoughtful multidisciplinary approach was required to determine the best approach to his pancreatic cancer. “Ultimately, after much deliberation, Mr. Grenan was able to undergo a robotic pancreas surgery with outstanding outcomes allowing him to return to his life passions. And to date, there has been no recurrence of cancer.”

Dr. Kwon expresses it is admirable how Shaun took a proactive approach in fighting his multiple bouts with cancer. “He was very involved and participated in his decision making and so the great outcomes thus far are really a testament to shared partnership.”

Living life with cancer

Shaun’s cancer journey is not for the faint of heart but throughout his experience, he has continued to work as a service manager for a security company while sharing treasured moments with his family and leaving a legacy of sharing knowledge of his love of history. “I have written more than 30 books mostly about civil war history and kid books on Joan of Arc and Abraham Lincoln. It’s important to me to leave some knowledge in the world,” he says. He credits his Henry Ford medical team and his wife, Sara, with keeping him strong during his cancer battle. “It’s important to recognize that cancer doesn’t just affect the person going through it, but the caregivers as well.” Shaun reflects that he never had to think of a bucket list until he had cancer but one adventure he hopes to do in the near future is to travel to Grenan castle in Ireland, which bears his family name. “My interest in war reenactments continue and I plan to do a reenactment in the next few months near Monroe on a National Park battlefield - the River Raisin, from the War of 1812.”

The cancer journey is not over for Shaun but he continues to live his life and embrace his passions. The rest is history.