David Denn, a long time resident of Walkersville, MD until November 2002 when he and his wife Karen bought their first house in Hagerstown and then married in May 2004, was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer called Pleomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma in May 2008, at the time he was age 39. It started as a large knot on his left forearm that he suspected was a torn muscle. After many tests and being sent to Washington Hospital Center, he found out the diagnosis. This cancer is normally found in children, we are only aware of a handful of adults in the US. For that first year of 2008 he received in patient treatments of chemotherapy every 21 days at Washington Hospital Center, then in November after the chemotherapy was found not to work, he had surgery to remove the tumor, followed by 7 weeks of daily radiation in Hagerstown and physical therapy. Then in June 2009, he found out that the spots in his lungs that were seen at original diagnosis had grown and multiplied, so they had determined that the cancer had metastasized to his lungs. He began chemotherapy again in July 2009 through August 2010, but nothing worked. He was then sent to Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC in July 2010, to see what treatment options they might have because his doctor in Washington, DC told him he had nothing left to try. They only had 1 Phase I clinical that didn’t sound very promising for his cancer, so during this time we were advised to wait. In October 2010, they then traveled to Dana Farber in Boston, but they had a few clinicals, but after one week one was withdrawn, and the others weren’t promising for this type of cancer. Then in November 2010, it had been discovered that the cancer had spread to 2 ribs, and in part of his vertebrae and would require more radiation in December. Then after going to NIH in January 2011 about a clinical trial, his wife noticed a bump on his head, and a brain MRI was done that showed it had spread to his skull, and he had more radiation in February 2011. Now, he is to set to see a doctor at John Hopkins on March 7th to see what options they might have, based on his wife’s searching, she located a possible Phase II trial there. For more specifics on his case, please go to his caringbridge  site that’s updated every few weeks with new updates.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/daviddenn.  Thank you for all the prayers and support.