When volleyball player Addison Rowan felt an unusual lump in her breast at the age of 11, her doctors dismissed it as a sign of puberty.
Over the next five years, that pea-sized mass grew to about the size of a ping-pong ball, at which point she was referred for testing.
Addison was assured “it was not a major concern” and that the risk of breast cancer was less than one in 100 due to her age and lack of family history.
Then they discovered it wasn’t breast cancer, but an extremely rare cancerous tumor that, if not caught early, kills four in 10 children.
Volleyball player Addison Rowan (seen here) was just 16 when she was diagnosed with a rare form of soft tissue cancer called alveolar soft tissue sarcoma
Ms Rowan’s cancer spread to surrounding tissues in her chest and around her ribs, although doctors were able to completely surgically remove the cancer
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The North Carolina teen was diagnosed with alveolar soft tissue sarcoma in September 2021 at the age of 16.
It forms in the soft tissue that forms between fat, muscle and nerves. It only affects about 80 Americans per year.
It normally starts in the arms or legs. Doctors believe Ms Rowan is only the second reported case of ASPS developing in the breast, with that previous case involving an older woman.
The high school student learned about her diagnosis after coming home to find her parents crying.
Ms Rowan, now 19, told me People: ‘I immediately started freaking out. I just froze. I probably didn’t say anything for twenty minutes. I was so shocked.’
Mrs. Rowan underwent immediate surgery. That same week, her volleyball organized a sold-out match to help her out.
She said, “It was probably the best volleyball game I’ve played in my entire life. I just tried to give it my all because I literally didn’t know if I would ever be able to play again.
‘My whole team rallied around me and they dedicated the game to me.’
The team won the match.
Ms Rowan told People that her body is ‘back to normal’ three years after her diagnosis and she can now play club volleyball at university.
Now a sophomore majoring in biology, Ms. Rowan hopes to study oncology or pathology to “learn more and help people.”
Three days later, during a six-hour operation, doctors discovered that Ms Rowan’s cancer had spread to surrounding tissue in her chest and around her ribs.
Surgeons took tissue from the skin on her back to reconstruct her chest, and they were forced to collapse one of her lungs and remove a rib.
Mrs Rowan said: ‘When I woke up I was in so much pain. I didn’t even know there was pain this bad.
‘I was very scared because I had never felt so much pain before. I literally kept asking my parents. I thought, “Will it be okay? Will I make it?”
Soft tissue sarcomas account for only one in 100 cancer cases in the US, and ASPS cases represent only one in 500 of those.
If the cancer has not spread, the five-year survival rate is just over 90 percent. Even in cases where the disease has spread, children have a 60 percent survival rate.
Doctors were able to remove all of Ms. Rowan’s cancer, and this month the sophomore celebrates her third anniversary as cancer-free.
She said: I learned that I was definitely stronger than I thought. I brought out the strongest version of myself. That helped me beat the odds.”
She can even play club volleyball at her university now that her body is “pretty much back to normal.” “I honestly feel stronger than before,” she said.
Ms Rowan is studying biology and hopes to study oncology or pathology to ‘learn more and help people.’
She said: ‘No matter the odds, no matter how rare the condition, ultimately you are in control of your story and your future.
“If you feel like everything is going against you, don’t let it defeat you and define you. You can push yourself and change your future.”