Young melanoma survivor gets a wake-up call. In fact, he gets it twice.
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Highlights
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It was late summer in 1999 and the Schwartz family was gathered on the beach in Tampa, Florida. Ron’s sister, a physician, noticed a few “angry-looking” moles on his back and shoulders and urged him to see a dermatologist. A couple of months later, he did. The doctor removed 5 or 6 moles as well as what appeared to be a cyst. When the lab report on the cyst came back, the news wasn’t good. Not only was the “cyst” melanoma, it was classified as metastatic melanoma because it was beneath the skin. Even worse news came upon seeing the oncologist – the melanoma was stage IV.
“My first reaction was ‘This has got to be a mistake,’” recalls Ron, then only 30 years old. “My second reaction was ‘Okay, I've got melanoma, but the doctors removed it so I'll go on my way now. I'll get on with life as usual.’” He convinced himself that he was too young to get cancer. He soon learned he was very wrong.
Melanoma Must-Read
- Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers.
- Melanoma usually looks like a dark brown or black mole on the skin.
- Melanoma accounts for less than 5% of skin cancer cases but causes 79% of skin cancer deaths.
- The American Cancer Society estimates melanoma will be diagnosed in more than 62,000 persons this year in United States.
- More than 8,400 deaths from melanoma are expected this year.
- Detected early, melanoma is often curable.
"I didn't realize what the ramifications of stage IV cancer were.”
Ron quickly educated himself and what he learned was very scary. His chances of survival were much lower because his melanoma was detected late. And worse, the classification of stage IV meant that the melanoma had spread from where it started on the skin to another part of the body (in his case to the area under the skin in his shoulder).
Ron underwent a battery of scans and tests to determine if the cancer had spread further. The scans came back negative and Ron began weighing treatment options. He had read about vaccines to treat melanoma and decided to try a combination of vaccines and interleukin-2, an immune-boosting drug.
“It was a very traumatic experience for a young, seemingly healthy person to be going through,” Ron remembers. But despite the seriousness of the disease and the treatment schedule, he was still in denial – refusing to slow down and take any time off work.
Then, a swollen lymph node was discovered.
The node continued to grow and the doctor decided to remove it and test it for cancer. That was in the fall of 2000, and that was when Ron’s attitude changed dramatically.
“The denial was gone at that point,” Ron says. “Now I was scheduled for massive surgery, where 14 or 15 lymph nodes were going to be taken out of my neck. The surgery showed that only the one node was affected, but doctors put me on an aggressive one-year regimen of interferon [another immune-boosting drug] that they warned would knock me off my feet.”
“Now I finally got it. My job was to fight cancer and survive,” Ron recalls. “I took a year off work and got on with the battle.”
8 years later, Ron is still cancer free.
Now 39, Ron and his wife, Fredell, are back on track. Ron is a principal with Deloitte and Touche's Forensic and Dispute Services in Atlanta, Georgia, and he and his wife welcomed their daughter, Alex, in 2004. Ron and Fredell are active volunteers with the American Cancer Society, spreading the word about the importance of regular screening for skin cancer, and Ron was named to the Society’s South Atlantic Division Board of Directors. And, no surprise here, Ron now has twice-yearly appointments with both his oncologist and dermatologist.
Wisdom of the ages from a young man.
Ron Schwartz’s advice to others is:
- Get checked by a dermatologist at least once a year.
- Always use a good sunscreen.
- Don't think melanoma is an old person's disease.
- Don't believe only fair-skinned people get melanoma.
