Elizabeth Stavros Memorial Fund Recipients

Joey Ferrari

In April, 2005, Joey Ferrari, a very athletic 13 year old, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left tibia. He immediately began 8 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy. In August and September 2005, Joey had two lengthy limb salvage surgeries, skin grafting and reconstruction.

In March 2006, Joey's CAT Scan came back "clean", and on May 3rd, 2006, Joey finally had his chemotherapy port removed. He is looking forward to the summer and improving his golf game so he can play in the "Lizzy Memorial" Outing in September 2006.

Osteosarcoma has a tendency to metasticize to the lungs, so an aggressive follow up regimen will be followed for Joey. This consists of CAT Scans every 3 months for the first year, gradually tapering off to 3 per year for the next 5 years.

Joey was treated at Universtiy of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital by Dr. James Nachman and Dr. Terrance Peabody.

In April 2004, 32 year old Rebecca Carriere's gynecologist discovered a pea-size lump in Rebecca's right breast. A mammogram showed the lump to be a cyst. A second opinion from another doctor confirmed the same diagnosis. Both Physicians agreed the lump should be watched closely.

By May 2005, the lump had grown to 8cm in size. A biopsy confirmed that Rebecca had stage 3 breast cancer. She began her first of four rounds of chemotherapy on Saturday, May 7th. The tumor shrank back to 1cm in size. Due to her great response to chemotherapy she was able to have a Lumpectomy in August 2005 instead of a mastectomy. Her surgery was followed by four more rounds of chemotherapy, and 33 sessions of radiation.

In February 2006, an MRI and Mammogram showed Rebecca to officially be in remission. She will continue to have these tests every 3 months and a bone scan once per year until her Doctor requests otherwise.