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Tumor found at a chemo visit
The scan
Gary Sinise's wife, Moira Harris, had stage three breast cancer and was going through chemotherapy and radiation. At one of her appointments, he asked her spine surgeon to take a look at their son Mac, who had pain in his tailbone. The surgeon put Mac in the scanner and came back with a tumor. Gary was still sitting there talking about his wife's chemo.
The cancer
The cancer was chordoma, which is very rare. It's a tumor that grows slowly at the base of the spine or at the skull base at the top of the spine, and it may have been there since Mac was born. He was diagnosed at 27, after two or three years of tailbone pain.
Surgery and spread
Mac had his first surgery in September 2018. Afterward the family was told the cancer had come back and started to spread. His mother went into remission, but his cancer kept spreading.
How can a tumor be present from birth?
Chordoma grows from remnants of the notochord, the embryonic structure that guides the spine's formation and later becomes part of the discs between the vertebrae. Some of those cells stay behind in the tailbone or the base of the skull. Most never cause trouble, but in rare cases they begin to grow, very slowly. The slow pace is why symptoms such as tailbone pain can go on for years before a scan finds the cause.
Why is chordoma so hard to treat?
The tumor sits against the spinal cord and major nerves, which limits how much surrounding tissue a surgeon can safely take. Surgeons aim to remove it in one piece, because cells left or spilled during surgery can lead to a recurrence. The National Cancer Institute notes that chordoma cells respond poorly to most standard chemotherapy drugs. That is why radiation, including proton therapy, plays a large role in its care.
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