Marty’s Story

One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib.

I never had any pain or discomfort. One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back.  I immediately called my family doctor and he suggested I have a CAT scan. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib. At first the doctors here thought it was benign after needle biopsies. Then, during an aborted surgery, the surgeon knew it was something much different, took a larger biopsy, sent it to Mayo, and closed me back up.

Mayo returned the verdict, osteosarcoma, and within two weeks I was on my way to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where Dr. Wayne L. Hofstetter, a wonderful thoracic surgeon, removed the tumor and two ribs (8th and 9th) on the left side of my body. Dr. Raymond, a pathologist at M. D. Anderson upon receiving Mayo’s diagnosis, questioned if the tumor might not be a periosteal osteosarcoma as a result of the grade. He was correct. Once removed it was determined that it was periosteal osteosarcoma and it had invaded the bone marrow for 7mm. Read more

Katy’s Story

Ewing’s sarcoma at the ribs
Age at Diagnosis: 19
Date of Diagnosis: November 2007
Location: North Carolina

Diagnosis: I was having stomach pain and went in for a CT scan to rule out appendicitis. While that was clean, they mentioned that there was a three inch mass that appeared to be in my lung. My doctor tells me that I’m her only sarcoma patient to not have any symptoms. At first, the doctors didn’t know what to make of my tumor. It seemed to be in the space between my lung and ribs on my left side. We went from doctor to doctor until we arrived at the professor of surgery at UNC. He said he didn’t think it was anything bad, but decided to take it out just to be sure. After opening me up, they saw that it wasn’t anything good and took out my eighth, ninth, and tenth rib, and the nerve that runs along there. Read more

Mariel’s Story

Ewing’s sarcoma at the rib
Age at Diagnosis: 13
Date of Diagnosis: 2000
Location: Florida
Hospital: Jackson Memorial

Diagnosis: I was just 13 years of age when some medical problems started to arise. I had a bad cough, shortness of breath, pain and a lump in my right 6th rib. But I just thought it was something that would go away. Things started to get worst and my parents took me to the hospital, they decided to take an MRI, Radiography, CAT scan etc. They saw a tumor on my 6th rib; they rushed me to the operating room and got the lump removed, and it turn out it was cancer. My parents brought me to the U.S to seek medical treatment, where they confirmed the diagnosis: Ewing’s sarcoma. They started the treatment right away; I had lots of side effects and my hair fell. Thanks to God it’s been 6 years since I’ve been free of the malignancy. It was a very difficult time for me and my family, not just because I had cancer, also because we were in another country totally different from ours Read more

Tammy’s Story

Ewing’s Sarcoma at the ribs
Age at Diagnosis: 12
Date of Diagnosis: March 1986
Location: Texas

Diagnosis: I broke my arm due to a calcium cyst in 1985. At the start of 1986, I was having back pains. As the pain increased I started running a fever at the same time I had the pain. My mother was a nurse, so she instantly took me to a doctor when she found out. The doctors told her it was getting used to using my arm, however luckily for me my mother did not believe them and insisted they test more then just x-rays. When a bone scan was done, “hot spots” were found on my ribs on the left side of my back where the pain was. This was all happening to me the month before my 13th birthday. I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning the word “cancer” to me, but that is what it turned out to be, Ewing’s Sarcoma. Read more

Bill’s Story

Chondrosarcoma at the ribs
Age at Diagnosis: 60
Date of Diagnosis: 2004
Location: Australia

Diagnosis, Treatment and Metastases: In 2004 I was diagnosed with a chondrosarcoma on my rib cage that went from the size of a prune to a grapefruit in 6 weeks. They removed the left side of my rib cage and replaced it with a plastic like rib cage. Last year, in November of 2005, I found another 2 chondrosarcomas on my knee and ankle. Due to this I lost my leg and have now had to learn how to walk again. Since then I recently have just had another chondrosarcoma where it originally occurred on my plastic rib cage. Read more