If it weren’t for an article George Piazzi read while sitting in the waiting room, he might never have met the surgeon he now credits with saving his life.
The now 50-year-old San Antonio native had learned that week, in March 2013, that there was a significant mass in his chest, but the cardiothoracic surgeon to whom he’d been referred was out of town so Piazzi didn’t have an appointment until later that month. Then, he read an article in MD News about the UT Health Science Center’s Dr. Daniel DeArmond.
The piece detailed how DeArmond, the associate program director for thoracic surgery residency and director of minimally invasive lung surgery, used video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) to operate on cancer patients without having to completely open them up. An active father of four, Piazzi was interested in any method that might allow for shorter recovery time while still removing his tumor. He met with DeArmond later that week.
DeArmond was concerned from the start. Piazzi’s tumor—discovered through an X-ray after he had slight chest pain—was in the thymus gland. Hardly any adults have a thymus gland as it usually shrivels and disappears by age 5 after accomplishing its role in developing immune cells. It’s also rare for thymus glands to develop tumors. While located in the chest, they’re not impacted by smoking or other environmental factors that cause cancer in the lungs. “These are things that you hear about and you study and you get quizzed on but you don’t see it everyday,” DeArmond says. Unfortunately, when cancer does occur in the gland, it’s extremely aggressive.
Piazzi went into surgery days later. DeArmond was unable to remove the tumor through the VATS procedure but was successful after opening up Piazzi’s chest during a four-hour surgery that was complicated by the discovery that the tumor encased a vein and important nerve. The nerve fed into the left diaphragm and removal meant Piazzi’s left lung would only partially inflate, causing him chronic shortness of breath. Still, DeArmond says, it had to be taken out. “It’s very important for us to think about the margins,” he says. “You don’t want to cut through the tumor and leave anything behind.”
Piazzi learned that day that the tumor was cancerous and soon began chemotherapy and radiation. Two years later, he’s still clean. And, as of this summer, he’s breathing easily again.
Piazzi initially rejected the idea of a second surgery that would correct his diaphragm and collapsed lung issue. But after a few years, he wanted to lose the shortness of breath that inhibited him from keeping up with his kids.
This time around, DeArmond was able to use the VATS procedure and completed the surgery with just three small incisions. In retrospect, Piazzi says the severity of his situation never really sunk in. He was shocked he had cancer, but looked at it as something he simply had to get through. “Looking back, we’re pretty amazed at how rough it all was… I was pretty healthy, had a healthy diet and exercised. It was not something I expected at all,” he says. “This has strengthened my faith in God. He has a reason for everything and a purpose for all adversity. I’m hoping I can use this experience some day to help others.”—KP