The Sarcoma Files
On the Frontier with Sarcoma CancerBlogs
Practical Perspectives
What is Sarcoma?
Hello! To come up to speed on sarcoma, let’s start at the 100,000 foot level. Cancer “families” are named after the type of cell it originates from. To date, there are 5 major families of cancer: Carcinoma comes from the epithelial cells. This is what most of us...
The Sarcoma Files
On the Frontier
Don’t be fooled by fancy hospitals and the science wonks, Sarcoma is a frontier cancer. It’s rare with only about 15,000 new cases a year, 1% of new cases. Scott was one of them. There is so much that is unknown and medical treatment considerably lags the “top” cancers and still heavily relies on 20th century surgery and radiation approaches. This frontier is where chemo treatments may or may not help. It did not for Scott.
However, there is good reason for hope. The Sarcoma frontier has attracted a legion of doctors and nurses, resilient and not afraid of the wild-wild-west hardships. The frontier towns called Sarcoma Centers often work together against the invaders from the wilderness. They are leap frogging older cancer treatments to use the best science and treatments found anywhere in the world.
If you have found yourself on the Sarcoma Frontier, I am truly sorry. Scott’s been living there and not by choice. However, in the mist of hardships and being self-sufficient when scared witless, there is a rugged beauty that matches the wonderful people in this frontier. A rare place where simple gratitude of life and closeness to God is an everyday occurrence. And we have purpose since without us pioneers, the ones who follow will be up a creek without paddle.
Let us Arise2Live.