SUNDAY PROFILE: Kellie Massey

College student, cancer survivor likes helping others

By John Blankenship

When Kellie Massey was 10 months old, she was just starting to walk.

Then suddenly, she stopped walking and showed signs of bruising on her legs.

“At first, the doctors told my mother that I had the croup,” Kellie recalled of her childhood illness, “and I was hospitalized. It was then that doctors realized it was something more. I was diagnosed with acute nonlymphocitic leukemia (ANL).”

ANL is a cancer of connective tissues, such as nerves, muscles, cartilage, joints, bone or blood vessels. It can arise anywhere in the body, frequently hidden deep in the limbs.

After two years of chemotherapy Kellie’s health improved and appeared normal. Her cancer was in remission. But at age 16, something else turned up.

Doctors discovered a benign tumor on Kellie’s right ovary. Surgeons removed it.

Then at 18, Kellie developed Ewing’s sarcoma, another form of cancer totally unrelated to her previous illness.

Doctors now refer to this group of cancers as the Ewing family of tumors, which can occur at any age. But these tumors are most common in early teenage years.

About 15 percent occur in adults. The majority of these tumors occur in the trunk, and the most common site is the pelvis. About one-third of the bone tumors occur in the legs, mainly in the middle of the long bones.

The cancer got its name from Dr. James Ewing, who in 1921 described a bone tumor in children that was different from the more common bone tumor, osteosarcoma. Its most important feature was that it could be treated with radiation. This new tumor became known as Ewing sarcoma or Ewing tumor. At first, this tumor was only seen in bones. Later, the same kind of tumor was found in the soft tissues and named extraosseous (outside the bone).

About 60 percent of Ewing tumors start in the bone, however. About 1 percent of all cancers are sarcomas. Between 15 to 20 percent of all children’s cancers are sarcomas. Hundreds of thousands of patients and their families struggle with sarcomas worldwide.

When possible, sarcoma patients have surgery to remove the cancer. Surgery is often combined with chemotherapy and/or radiation. Many sarcomas often resist current treatments, however.

“Typically, Ewing’s will trigger leukemia,” Kellie explains. “As of right now, I seem to be the only person to have had leukemia first and then Ewing’s sarcoma.”

Kellie’s treatments, meanwhile, proved extremely daunting.

“I took 12 months of chemotherapy for Ewing’s, somewhere around 42 rounds. I also had many port placements and removals, biopsies, bone marrows, and blood transfusions, especially platelets and blood aphesis.”

The Raleigh General Hospital volunteer had her last chemo treatment last August. Since then, though, she has had multiple bone marrow, PET, and CT scans.

“Everything so far is coming back negative, just showing some scar tissue,” she said. “My counts are coming up slowly but surely. Platelets are the slowest, but I’m used to that. My hair is growing back like crazy. I still experience some occasional pain but I can deal with it.”

Kellie now has returned to her studies at New River Community and Technical College in Beckley, where she is majoring in nursing.

“It’s been a difficult transition trying to go back to a normal life again,” she says. “I dropped everything in my life when I was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, and I’m just trying to pick up my life again.”

She adds, “I’m still working. I’m jumpy about medical issues, but I hope it will fade with time. I’m also putting in more time volunteering at the hospital. It has become something of an addiction.”

And though things have been tough for the young college student, Kellie isn’t about to throw in the towel when it comes to meeting her fate head on.

“I’ve learned to live each day to the fullest,” she says, “never knowing if or when my cancer will come back. I also try to help other cancer patients with daily needs and emotional support.”

Kellie heads a support group for the Raleigh County Chapter of the American Cancer Society. The group meets the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. at Raleigh Regional Cancer Center in Beckley.

The young woman frequently is asked to offer thoughts and hints for newly diagnosed cancer patients. She is emphatic when it comes to handing out advice to others:

“Research your treatment protocols and be sure of your options and side effects. Don’t hesitate to get a second opinion. Find someone for emotional support. Research your medicines as thoroughly as possible. Take the smallest amount of pain medication to be comfortable but not overly medicated. Find foods that you can eat to help keep your strength up. That way you’ll have a better prognosis.”

On a personal note, Kellie offers this to her fellow cancer survivors:

“Regardless of how strong you are, things will get you down, and you won’t want to go on, but you have to. Just pick up and get over things that are thrown your way. You definitely need to talk about things and rely on other people, even if you are self-reliant.”

— E-mail: jabbb@register-herald.com

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