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Story from Sarah

Written by Sarah in June 2004 (age 15 when diagnosed with atypical osteogenic sarcoma in the left hip with metastasis to the lungs and liver)

In June of 1990 at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, I was diagnosed with atypical osteogenic sarcoma with metastasis to the lungs and liver. My sarcoma was located at the ball joint of the left hip and was traveling down the femur. My orthopedist felt that it had been growing for one and a half years. They detected two tumors in my left lung and one tumor in the right. All three were approximately the size of an eraser on a pencil. The tumor in my liver was approximately the size of a silver dollar.

My orthopedist was baffled as to how he was going to perform a radical limb salvage and actually traveled to the Mayo Clinic to consult with an old instructor. A plan was also devised for a 13 month chemotherapy regimen: a cyclical treatment once a month starting with vincristine and methotrexate. Next was cisplatin and 72 hours straight of adryamicin (yuck, almost killed me twice!) and BCD-combination (methotrexate, doxorubicin, and cisplatinum). Three months into treatment the limb salvage was performed with great success. X-rays were also taken at that time confirming that the tumors in my lungs and liver had shrunk by half. By the six-month mark they had shrunk to pretty much nothing. At nine months I was completely clear.

After 14 years, my endoprosthesis is in great shape and I have been cancer free ever since.

Sarah Finley
Cancer Survivor since age 15