Five years ago my husband developed on lump on his upper right arm. Please see my previous article (March 28, 2016) on my site. Our dermatologist at the time ordered an ultrasound. That test claimed he had a lipoma. It was let go! Our dermatologist should have did a biopsy at that time, but didn’t. My husband’s general doctor ordered an MRI. Same results came back. Lipoma. It never was a lipoma. Time past and a year and a half later this one lump grew into approximately four other lumps. We knew it had to come out.

We found a general surgeon who didn’t know what it was either. But he agreed it needed to be removed. When he removed it he didn’t remove the margins as he wanted to see what the pathology report said. Once that came back, it was termed a dermatofibrosarcoma! With mixed variants. A rare skin cancer (not caused by sun exposure). Dr. Rink, the general surgeon, called the oncologists at a local clinic to see if they could handle this further. They said my husband needs to go down to see Dr. Eilber at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. We did just that and this was impressive. Dr. Eilber and his father (who started the sarcoma department there) were top notch! Highly skilled specialists. Dr. Eilber did the surgery to removed the margins. They came back clear! However, while slow growing, this type of sarcoma has the nature to return. And they did.

Over the years new bumps appeared and were removed. They just didn’t prove to be anything that was concerning. We saw Dr. Eilber every six months since then for routine check-ups.  We saw Dr. Eilber on October 1, 2019. Dr. Eilber wanted my husband to have a new MRI to see if any of these growths were growing towards his muscle. A few were. A new surgery was scheduled for November 22, 2019. Within the three weeks that we saw Dr. Eilber on October 1st and when my husband had the new MRI, a new growth popped out. A very round and very red nodule! Never saw anything like this over the past five years. It wasn’t seen on the new MRI report.

When my husband was being prepped for the surgery on November 22nd. Dr. Eilber came in and was quite surprised that this red nodule was there. He looked at me (the keeper of the records) while my husband laid there, and asked me “When did you two come last?” I said October 1st. He then looked at me again and asked “This wasn’t there then?” I said no! He said he didn’t even see it on the MRI report! Well we could tell Dr. Eilber was very concerned. But of course, he took it and the others out.

When we went back down there in December Dr. Eilber told us the pathology report said it was a high grade sarcoma! The term has now been changed from a dermatofibrosarcoma to a myxofibrosarcoma. We’ll we were very worried. Dr. Eilber ordered a chest CT scan to make sure it didn’t spread. It hadn’t luckily. He then ordered localized radiation at a facility near to where we live.

My husband and I saw the radiation oncologist there on January 6th. Another wonderful doctor. The radiation will be localized. Just in the arm where all of this is developing. He will have five days (20 minutes each session) of radiation and the weekends off for five weeks. He will then see Dr. Eilber again in March and another surgery will be scheduled with wider margins and possible skin grafting.

We are very concerned of course. And hope for the best. Both types of sarcomas are slow growing and generally stay within the site where it developed.

Because my first article on this experience has received the most amount of comments I am going to focus on articles on rare cancers of all kind this year. There are many and I hope you find them interesting and informative.