Metastatic Sarcomatoid Carcinoma

FarmersGirl

Last October, my 24 year old son-in-law was having a tooth issue that wasn’t getting better after several trips to the dentist. After pulling the tooth and a biopsy of the area, it was confirmed cancer. Fast forward 3 weeks to having emergency surgery to remove a softball size tumor that basically exploded from the area where the tooth was pulled. Surgery removed lower left jaw and 4 lymph nodes. Cancer was only from the neck up. The doctors said they wanted to do chemo and radiation as a precaution because of how aggressive it was. Fast forward to June 1, 2022. Follow up PET after chemo and radiation showed several areas of concern including 12th rib, lung, L2, L3, hip and pubis. Bone biopsy was performed and shows “High grade spindle cell tumor consistent with metastatic sarcomatoid carcinoma”. OU says it’s not curable and referred us to MD Anderson for possible clinical trials as they don’t have anything that fits this rare form of cancer. OU does have 3 trials that have similarities to his cancer but have to see if he qualifies for them. Sarcoma doctor at MD Anderson wants to do another scan as it’s been 6 weeks since the first one. They feel clinical trials are too risky right now as we need something that has proven beneficial. Clinical trials can be done later if they can get it under control. They said that OU has been treating it as a carcinoma which was fine when it was just surgery to remove the lower jaw but MD Anderson’s pathology is showing primarily sarcoma. I guess this form of cancer is extremely rare and extremely aggressive and consists of multiple cancers which makes it even harder to treat. Has anyone heard of this cancer before, anything would be helpful at this point? MD Anderson acts like time is crucial as it’s only been 6 weeks since his last PET scan and want to see how much it’s progressed in that short of time frame. Not sure which way to go as I’m afraid of making the wrong decision and my daughter becomes a widow at 24.