First Post

I'm 3 weeks into my treatment and, thanks to all of the support that we've received, I've been doing quite well. As this is our first post, I'll provide a brief summary of my diagnosis and treatment plan:

Starting around December 2007, I noticed a small lump in the skin over my left hip. Initially, we thought this was either a dermatofibroma (a very benign, fibrous skin tumor - I've had several in the past) or a pimple. However, when it became clear that it was enlarging, I made an appointment with dermatology who then referred me to surgery for a biopsy.

Unfortunately, my biopsy came back as a small round blue cell sarcoma. This is part of a family of tumors that includes Ewings Sarcoma and, compared to other cancers, is quite rare. As it's more common in children than in adults, much of the research and experience with treating this cancer comes from pediatric oncology.

Following my diagnosis, I had an MRI of the primary tumor, which showed that it involved the skin and fat, but did not the underlying muscle (good news). Also, as this sarcoma can spread distantly, I had a CT of the lungs, a whole-body PET/CT, and an MRI of the spine and pelvis. All of these studies showed no evidence of distant cancer (also good news).

Nevertheless, it's possible that there is microscopic disease outside of my tumor (i.e., a small number of cells not visible on imaging). So, chemotherapy is an essential part of my treatment. Every 3 weeks, I'll be getting 3-5 days of chemotherapy. After 4 of these cycles (12 weeks), I'll have surgery to remove my tumor. My surgical oncologist will remove the tumor, some surrounding skin, the underlying fat, and a small amount of muscle; a plastic surgeon will then rearrange some skin flaps to cover and reconstruct the area. After healing from this, I'll continue with chemotherapy cycles, every 3 weeks, for a total of one year. As some of my chemotherapy has to be given as a continuous infusions, I will be an inpatient at Hopkins for many of my cycles.

Day 1 of my first cycle was Wednesday, March 26 (I was inpatient for 4 days). My next cycle will begin this week (I'll be inpatient for 5 days this time). I'll post a summary of my first cycle in the next few days.

We're so grateful for all of the well wishes, support (lots of food!), and prayers that we've received so far. It's been quite overwhelming, but certainly wonderful.
Robert, Gwyneth, and William