Dr. Tod Conner Learned About Synovial Sarcoma at an Early Age

Being a teenager is challenging enough, but being a teenager with a life-threatening illness such as cancer can force a child to grow up fast.

Dr. Tod Conner knows this first hand. He was 14 years old when he learned he had cancer and today, 16 years later, he is physically reminded every day.

Prior to the diagnosis, Dr. Conner experienced persistent pain and loss of flexibility in his left knee that he attributed to a football or baseball injury. Repeated trips to hometown doctors in Austin could not find the cause of the pain. Running out of options, an orthopedist performed an arthroscopic exam of Dr. Conner's knee and found tissue that looked abnormal. The family came to Houston and to M. D. Anderson for further testing and diagnosis.

"It was actually on my 14th birthday when I was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma," he remembers. "I was with my family staying at the Shamrock Hotel, but it wasn't much of a celebration."

Synovial sarcoma is a rare cancer of the tissue and fluids usually found, as in Dr. Conner's case, in the knee joint. The most common treatment for this type of cancer is surgery to remove the cancerous tissue.

Dr. Conner received one round of chemotherapy before he underwent surgery. "Chemotherapy was especially hard for me as a young person because I was so sick," he says. "I am a naturally active person and, especially at that age, I wanted to be out with my friends, not sick for a week at a time. And, in 1984 they didn't have the good medicines that help control many of the side effects that they have now."

He continued chemotherapy for 17 months until a tumor showed up in a routine follow-up X-ray. Chemotherapy was not working. Factoring in the high rate of recurrence in synovial sarcoma, the other option was amputation.

"My stipulation was that if I chose amputation, I would not have to undergo anymore chemotherapy," he says, "so I had surgery to have my left leg amputated from the knee down."

Decisions made at such a young age required an understanding of his illness that put him on the path to study medicine. Now a medical school graduate, Dr. Conner recently completed a rotation for his residency in M. D. Anderson's pediatric unit.

"It was a little spooky walking into the clinic room where I received treatment as a patient in 1984," he says. "It seemed much smaller then, but the atmosphere in the unit hasn't changed. Back then the family-like feeling from the unit is what helped me decide that I wanted to be a doctor."

Among the mementos on the walls in the pediatric unit are photos of Dr. Conner on the annual ski trip for amputee patients in 1988 and his graduation announcement from medical school. Seeing these, Dr. Conner says, confirmed the decisions made as a teenager were the right choices.

"It was a thrill to work alongside of some faculty and staff who treated me when I was a patient. It is a learning environment. There is much to learn from other physicians and staff and from the patients as well," he says.

Dr. Conner draws on his own experiences to help him "read" young patients and their families. "I remember not just what I went through, but also how hard it was for my parents. It was especially tough on my little brother as he made many sacrifices and he didn't have a choice. As a pediatrician, I pride myself on being able to connect with kids and their parents."

National Cancer Survivors Day is June 3, but Dr. Conner will not confine his celebration to the single day.

"Every day is special," he says. "I don't think about the fact that I am a cancer survivor every day. It is just part of who I am."