A woman has shared her experience after being diagnosed with an exceptionally rare form of cancer, which impacts only one in a billion individuals.
Gianna Cericola, known for her dedication to fitness, was described by her family as a ‘workout warrior’ who spent much of her time at the gym. However, at the age of 27, she was faced with a shocking diagnosis – desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), a rare type of sarcoma.
Gianna, a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, initially experienced what she thought was a typical urinary tract infection (UTI) along with stomach pain in early 2024.
Speaking to ‘The Patient Story’ on YouTube, she explained: “The first kind of symptoms that I experienced were kind of like a UTI-related symptom, like a lot of burning when I went to the bathroom and just, like a lot of weird stomach pain in general.”
“So then I ended up going to the ER. They didn’t see anything, they did an ultrasound. So they sent me home. I would say about six months later, for those six months, I was totally fine, I felt normal, it was, like, really, really weird how the symptoms kind of just went away.”
“Six months later, I just randomly started passing out – which never happened. Like, that’s not normal for me. So then I went to the ER a few times, and the last time they did an ultrasound they saw an eight centimeter mass in my abdominal cavity.”
Now 28, she was diagnosed in October of last year and is currently receiving treatment at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. To help cover her medical expenses, she has set up a GoFundMe.
Gianna recounted: “They told me at first that it looked like a cyst on my ovary and it wasn’t cancer, and not to worry about it – but they rushed me into surgery because the tumor started bleeding. So, I was passing out from just internal-bleeding in general.”
“I came out of surgery and they told me that it was cancer but they don’t know what kind of cancer it was. I waited about… it was like a really long time, I would say like a month for my diagnosis – they weren’t really sure. It came back unclassified, and I was super scared.”
She further detailed the difficulty of being informed she had cancer without knowing the specific type, leaving her in a state of confusion and uncertainty about how to process her diagnosis.
Gianna expressed: “It’s such a rare kind of cancer, I heard it affects one in one billion people. So I was like, ‘I don’t know how to feel about this’. It’s kind of crazy.”
As a former graphic designer, she received an implantable port, a device used in cancer treatment to facilitate chemotherapy through a tube with a rubber disc placed surgically under the skin.
Gianna is determined to raise awareness about her condition, asserting it will not hinder her pursuit of a full and meaningful life.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.