University of Pittsburgh
Summer 2015
Chordoma Contained — Life Radiates Chordoma is rare. . Chordoma is tough. . Chordoma, meet Joey Rodriguez. “On November 18, 2005, at roughly 3:00 in the afternoon, Dr. Donna Hill at Emory University Medical Center, called to tell me that I had a brain tumor. She told me that I had a very rare type of cancerous brain tumor called a clival chordoma and that I would need brain surgery immediately. I wondered to myself, ’How bad is a clival chordoma?’ Available research at the time suggested that the average life expectancy of a person diagnosed with a clival chordoma is approximately 3 to 5 years from diagnosis to death. ’Well, that’s that,’ I thought.” “In May 2006, I flew to Pittsburgh to have brain surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I spent over 12 hours in the operating room; they used the endoscopic endonasal approach, where they enter the skull and remove the tumor via the nose — the one and only time that the family schnoz has paid off.” “In August 2006, I began radiation therapy. It took a full year to recover from the radiation. Sometime in 2007, I was told the tumor was in remission.” Joey decided not to be defined by his cancer. “Since achieving remission,” he says, “I’ve.
..
Swam in the ocean below the Mayan temples of Mexico Walked along the blooming cherry trees that shade “The Philosopher’s Path” in Japan Received a Swedish massage from a grumpy Hungarian in Budapest Rode a Harley 30 miles on a dirt road into the wilds of Arizona to spend a night on a mountain top Fallen out of love, fallen in love Felt humbled and small at Anne Frank’s house Said a prayer for the dead at Hiroshima Worked with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, The LA County Museum of Art…. Held my baby niece and nephew when they were born
“In short, I’ve lived more of my life in the past 11 years than I did in the first 35. I’ve had more good days than bad and having brain cancer gave me opportunity to learn more about myself and the world around than anything else I might have gone through or done. It was a terribly difficult event - but a profoundly meaningful and positive experience. I am thankful for it and thankful to those who were there with me through it all.” Joey is a survivor. He loves being part of the Chordoma Support Group on Facebook while getting serious about his new career in acting. He has roles on television shows Homicide Hunter and The Walking Dead. Check out season 6, episode 9 of The Walking Dead to see Joey, resplendent in black leather, lots of hair, and lots of menace, up front in a group of bad-guy bikers. While casting agents typically tap him for the role of “biker, criminal, or thug,” the real-life role for Mr. Joey Rodriguez would, undoubtedly, be alongside the good guys, fighting the evil villain chordoma.
What is chordoma?
Chordoma
is a
type of bone cancer usually found in the skull base or spine. These often slowgrowing tumors are rare, accounting for only 1% of central nervous system cancers. They often recur after treatment, and can occur in people of all ages, from infants to the elderly. Chordomas are thought to arise from remnants of the embryonic notochord, a structure that serves as scaffold in the formation of the spinal column. Notochord cells normally persist after birth inside the spine and skull; rarely, these cells undergo a transformation that leads to the formation of chordoma. Tumors at the base of the skull (the clivus) are referred to as clival chordomas.