NEED TO KNOW
- A 67-year-old man is opening up nearly 50 years after being diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer as a teenager
- Peter Gillatt, from England, was 18 when he was told he had Ewing sarcoma
- He received the diagnosis after noticing a numbness in his arm while attending a music festival
A British man is opening up about his health journey nearly 50 years after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer as a teenager.
Peter Gillatt, from the coastal town of Southwold in England, was 18 when he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in the summer of 1977, according to a Cancer Research U.K. press release obtained by PEOPLE.
Gillatt, who is sharing his story in support of Cancer Research U.K.’s Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month, was camping at the music event, Reading Festival, when he noticed a numbness in his left arm.
The symptoms worsened over time, and shortly after the now-67-year-old arrived to start a chemistry degree at Sheffield University, he went for an X-ray that showed a large mass.
More testing indicated that the bone cancer had eroded two of his ribs and damaged the nerves controlling one of his arms, per the release.
According to the Mayo Clinic, Ewing sarcoma begins as a growth of cells in the bones and the soft tissue around them. It most often happens in children and young adults, but can occur at any age.
It’s most often seen in the leg and pelvis area, but can also start in the chest, abdomen, arms or elsewhere in the body, the site states.
Gillatt received a year of chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy, according to the charity. Scans two years later showed no evidence of cancer, but he had two ribs, part of his left lung and some surrounding tissue removed as a precaution.
Gillatt was cared for by Sir Terence English at the time, who had recently carried out the U.K.’s first heart transplant. At the age of 20, Gillatt was told he was cured.
He went on to complete his chemistry degree and had a career in biomedical and food research before working in central government, per the release.
While he considers himself lucky that he was cured, Gillatt has had to manage heart problems that doctors think could have been caused by the treatment, and he hasn’t recovered the strength in his arm because of nerve damage caused by the cancer.
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Researchers have made a lot of progress with Ewing sarcoma over the years, but Gillatt said in the charity’s release that there’s still “a long way to go to help transform what surviving cancer means for people like me through more effective and less toxic treatments.”
The five-year survival rate has significantly improved over time, according to research published on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website. It was 44% for localized cancer and 16% for metastatic — where the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body — between 1973 and 1982, when Gillatt was diagnosed.
According to the American Cancer Society, it’s now 81% for localized and 41% for distant.
“The five‑year survival rate wasn’t great when I was diagnosed,” Gillatt said in the Cancer Research U.K. release. “But it has improved so much over the years and that should be celebrated – not only for patients, but for their family and friends.”
Cancers in young people need a different approach from those in children and older adults, the charity noted in the release. A Cancer Research U.K. spokesperson said that around 240 young people die from cancer each year in the country, with survivors often left with life-long impacts from the treatment.
“We’re grateful to Peter for sharing his experience and helping to give hope to others,” the chariy’s spokesperson, Patrick Keely, added in the release. “Cancer Research U.K. is committed to ensuring more teenagers and young adults live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
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