Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A Snapshot of Sarcoma - from National Cancer Institute

Incidence Rate Trends

Sarcomas are a diverse group of malignant tumors that develop from fat, muscles, nerves, joints, blood vessels, bones, and deep skin tissues. Sarcomas are difficult to differentiate from other malignancies when they are found within organs; thus, they are frequently misdiagnosed and highly underreported.

As a result, although the incidence estimates presented here include the best available data, they are probably low. Because sarcomas often afflict people in the prime of life, the number of years of life lost is substantial despite the relatively low incidence.

It is estimated that approximately 11,590 Americans will be diagnosed with sarcoma and 4,890 will die from the disease in 2007.

Soft tissue sarcoma1 and osteosarcoma (bone sarcoma) incidence rates have remained relatively constant over the past 30 years; however, soft tissue sarcoma is more deadly due to the lack of detectable symptoms at early disease stages. Several subtypes of osteosarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma exist; the exact number of Americans with each sarcoma subtype is unknown.

Source for incidence data: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and the National Center for Health Statistics. Additional statistics and charts are available at http://seer.cancer.gov/.
1Does not include Kaposi sarcoma, which is addressed in a separate Snapshot.
http://planning.cancer.gov/disease/Sarcoma-Snapshot.pdf

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Pacific Cup for Team Sarcoma

Nat and a few bruises from the 'bouncing around'...

Elise was eager to raise funds!

Nathan is multitasking at the helm

The team proudly displaying their "Team Sarcoma" bracelets at the finish in Hawaii.

And Elise was proudly displaying the Team Sarcoma logo!

Elise successfully completed the 2070 nautical-mile run from San Francisco to Hawaii during the Pacific Cup raising about $4K for sarcoma research in the process.

BeatSarcoma would like to thank all the Beethovens (Team Elise) who made this adventure possible. More photos and videos available at blog.beatsarcoma.org.

Pacific Cup 2008 Crew

Nate - Skipper
               
Nathan is a long-time sailor and racer returning to blue waters after a few years of mostly bay racing and coastal work. He is a naval architect/marine engineer working in heavy industry (tankers, containerships, terminals). focusing on software. After a few crewed runs several years ago, 2008 will be his first double-handed Pac Cup.

Nat - Navigator

During the day, Nat is a Product Manager at Google and at night she helps run BeatSarcoma. She took up competitive sailing after she landed a job in the UK, a sailor's heaven. Despite a few minor setbacks such as drifting for four days in the English Channel, sinking in the Pacific or being knocked overboard in San Francisco Bay, she bought "Elise", an Express 27, in 2006. She races under the burgee of the Saint Francis Yacht Club. 2008 will be her first Pac Cup.