BOSTON — A cancer diagnosis is a hard thing for anyone to take, and it’s particularly devastating for a young person.
The Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute is taking a different approach to treating these patients.
One of their success stories is Cameron Ryder, a young hockey player who is now back on the ice.
“I was very shocked. The first thing I thought was you always hear about other people getting it, but you never really think it would happen to you, until it does.”
What happened to Ryder was a rare form of cancer known as mucoepidermoid carcinoma. It’s usually found in much older patients.
Ryder’s diagnosis came when he was just 16-years-old, a healthy and vibrant student athlete in Vermont.
“We were doing pre-season for football, which I was trying for the first time that year. So, I attributed the shortness of breath and stuff like that to not being entirely used to the conditioning that we were doing. But over time, the longer we did it, the more I realized it was something a little bit more irregular.”
Over that fall and winter his condition spiraled from bad to worse.
“I was in and out of the hospital a few times with pneumonia, continuously having pneumonia, before I went to a specialist to get a bronchoscopy, and then removing the tumor from my bronchial tubes and then testing it and it came back as cancer.”
His cancer was unusual for a teenager and surgery wasn’t an option in Vermont.
But it was at Mass General Brigham at their Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer program.
Dr. Danielle Cameron is the director of pediatric surgical oncology.
“We know that some of these tumors that occur in younger people behave a little bit differently than they may behave in older or younger patients with the same diagnosis. And so, understanding the unique physiology and tumor biology for patients in this age range is really important.”
Dr. Cameron performed Ryder’s surgery in tandem with a specialist who handles cancers associated with older patients.
“We work on building customized and catered care teams around the patient, such that they get the best of both worlds between the pediatric and adult subspecialists that are available in our cancer institute.”
The program also factors in the social and emotional needs of younger patients.
“It’s a pivotal time in life and a cancer diagnosis can be really disruptive. It may pull them from the classroom or from their work. And can create a lot of psychosocial stress in their life.”
Today, Ryder is back on the ice.
He plays for the Valley Jr. Warriors, in a highly competitive league prepping players to be recruited for college teams,
“Our hardest worker,” said coach Ryan McGrath. “He’s a bulldog out there. He hits everything, does everything hard, just puts absolute abuse on his body every day in practice and in games.
McGrath was floored when he learned Cameron had 60% of his left lung removed.
“I was actually speechless, which is really hard to do, but to see where he’s come back from and battled through is just, it’s extraordinary. He’s an inspiration for the entire team.”
Ryder is thankful for the care he got at MGB, and thinking about a bright future, now that a dark chapter is behind him.
“I was definitely worried about not being able to play before surgery and after surgery so hearing that I was able to go back to sports and continue what I love to do was a good feeling.”
His motto today: “Stay optimistic, keep following your dreams, don’t ever give up.”
Ryder tells us he has a plan in mind when his hockey days are over.
He wants to go to medical school and become an oncology surgeon, so he can help people, just like the doctors at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute helped him.
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