For two years, routine blood tests showed that Mark Krauss was losing blood somewhere in his digestive tract, but his doctors in Florida could not find the source of the bleeding.
“I went through multiple endoscopies and colonoscopies as well as a small bowel video capsule enteroscopy in Florida trying to find the source of the bleeding, but they didn’t find anything,” says Mark, who splits his time between Florida and Rhode Island. After being rushed to the hospital for blood loss and emergency blood transfusions, Mark decided to get another opinion. That’s when he reached out to Dr. Christopher Huang, chief of gastroenterology at Boston Medical Center.
“The doctors in Florida thought I had microbleeds, which are hard to detect, because they bleed and then quickly heal. Dr. Huang agreed that could be the cause of my bleeding, but he wanted me to have some additional tests,” says Mark.
Those additional tests did not find the source of the bleeding. “But Dr. Huang wouldn’t give up,” says Mark. “He was persistent and would not be satisfied until he found the problem.” Dr. Huang told Mark that if he waited a few months, a new type of video capsule enteroscope would become available at BMC that captured images differently from the device used for his previous capsule study. He wanted to use this new technology to test Mark again.
New Test Finds a GIST
When Mark went for the new test about two months later, it was able to detect a polyp in the small intestine. “It was in an area that was like a blind spot for the other tests,” says Mark. “I felt really lucky to have Dr. Huang and his persistence. He followed up with me right away after the test and answered every single question I had. I told him I wanted it removed right away.”
Dr. Huang referred Mark to Dr. Jennifer Davids, the chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery at BMC. Dr. Davids removed the growth and a section of his small intestine on August 14, 2025. It turned out the growth was a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of cancer that grows in the digestive system.
“It was much bigger than they thought, and the pathology indicated it was pretty aggressive,” says Mark. “I feel extremely lucky that it didn’t burst, and we got it before it could advance any further.”
Throughout his recovery, Mark was happy to have the support of both Dr. Huang and Dr. Davids. “I was not uncomfortable after the surgery and I healed pretty quickly,” he says. “It was really quiet in the hospital, so I was able to rest and recover. Dr. Davids came in immediately after the surgery to tell me about the tumor and show me photos. She and Dr. Huang both made themselves available to me and had their staff follow up with me while I was in the hospital. I was treated like a king.”
Follow-Up Cancer Treatment
Because the cancer was aggressive, Mark was referred to Dr. Adam Lerner, a medical oncologist at BMC, for further treatment. “Dr. Lerner put me on a targeted therapy, to help prevent the cancer from coming back,” says Mark. “The treatment is in the form of a pill I have to take every day for a minimum of three years.”
Mark says he appreciated the convenience of ordering his cancer treatment through Moakley Pharmacy, the specialty pharmacy service at BMC. “They have been terrific. I had some questions about side effects, and they were very responsive. They were easy to talk to and they were always available.”
Mark is back in Florida for the winter, spending his time listening to music and reading, but he will return to BMC every three months for full body scans for at least a year. He is grateful for the care he received at BMC. “I feel like I had the A-Team,” he says. “Everything is going well and follow-up from everyone has been just terrific. I got great, great care from everyone at BMC—I feel like they really care about you.”