On February 13, 2020, 10-year-old Isabelle Martin, nicknamed Izzy, was doing what she loved most: dancing. Izzy had been dancing in competitions since she could walk. Just two weeks earlier, she had placed in the top 12 in an international dance competition. At her regular dance lesson, only a moment into her routine, Izzy collapsed. X-rays at Children’s Medical Center Plano revealed that her femur was broken. “Bones, especially femurs, do not just break,” says Izzy’s mom, Christine Martin. The pediatrician explained that Izzy’s bone was compromised from what looked to be a tumor. After multip ..read more

When Nout (rhymes with “out”) van Barneveld, 26, of Amsterdam, got his biopsy results and found out he had osteosarcoma, his first thoughts were for his loved ones. “I could handle [the news]. I felt strong,” he says. “For me, it is more difficult to see family and friends dealing with it.” To cope, Nout has chosen to remain positive throughout his osteosarcoma patient journey, even when things get particularly tough, which they have — more than once. “I think having a good mindset, it makes you stronger,” he says. “My biggest motivation for sharing my situation is to let people see how import ..read more

Thanks to DNA sequencing technology that was developed nearly 15 years ago, scientists are starting to better understand how and why cancer develops in humans. Now, building on that technology, award-winning researcher Isidro Cortés-Ciriano, PhD, is studying osteosarcoma genomes to understand what causes osteosarcoma and how the disease evolves within bone cells. He is hoping this information will allow investigators to develop new drugs that will treat the most aggressive types of osteosarcoma ..read more

Scott Shockley was a popular kid in high school. He was homecoming king. He served as a student ambassador. He played varsity sports — baseball, basketball, and football — and was even a nationally ranked long-snapper. Yet it was how he treated people that really showed what he was like as a person ..read more

Immunotherapy has been one of the most promising areas of cancer research in the past few decades. It is now approved to treat many types of cancers, including breast cancer, leukemia, liver cancer and others. But immunotherapy has not been successful in treating some cancers, and unfortunately, that includes osteosarcoma. “Thus far, immune-based therapeutic approaches for sarcomas have not been extremely successful,” says osteosarcoma researcher Jason T. Yustein, MD, PhD, of Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute. “But there is a lot of research going on in this field, and a lot of us ar ..read more

In last month’s The Frontline, we met Kathleen Watt, author of the new memoir, REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed, a successful opera singer who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which ended her career. In Part II of her fascinating story, she discusses how she learned to endure chemotherapy, how she made her doctors listen to her on treatment decisions, and what her life is like today in remission ..read more

Sometimes the hardest part of a cancer journey cannot be seen on a scan, lab results, or even biopsy. Sometimes, the hardest part cannot be seen at all. To learn more about cancer and its impact on mental and health, we sat down with Julie Germann, PhD, ABPP, Pediatric Psychologist at Children’s Health and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern, and Jenna Oppenheim, PsyD, ABPP, Pediatric Psychologist at Children’s Health and Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern, to discuss what families can expect in the early days of a diagnosis and where to turn for support when they need it ..read more

In high school, Isabel watched as her little brother was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. She saw him go through surgery at age 12 and then endure multiple rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments as a young teenager. Five years after his diagnosis — shortly after Isabel finished her first year of college — Miles passed away from the relentless disease. “There was never a thought in my mind that he was actually going to pass away. I always thought he was going to get better,” Isabel says. “I still really do not believe it ..read more

In Part I of this Q&A, Kathleen Watt, osteosarcoma survivor and author of REARRANGED: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed, speaks of how she became an opera singer, and candidly about what it was like to receive a cancer diagnosis. In Part II, which will be featured in next month’s The Frontline, she reveals how she endured chemotherapy, how she became her own best advocate regarding treatment decisions, and life today in remission ..read more

When Kaleb Collins was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at 10 years old, he did not think he would ever consider cancer a blessing. In fact, he was pretty angry while he was going through treatment. “I thought the world was against me, particularly when I found out I could not play sports anymore,” Kaleb says. “I was so competitive, and I didn’t want to lose that.” Prior to his diagnosis, Kaleb played baseball and basketball, and spent much of his free time running around and playing soccer with friends in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was during one of his baseball games that he began limping for no ap ..read more