Diagnosed in 2018 with Synovial Sarcoma following several years of sporadic pain in his hip and abdomen, which was originally attributed to old football injuries and constipation. Even after being admitted to the ER while attending the police academy and receiving an X-ray, the hospital missed the large Synovial Sarcoma tumor pressed against his colon. As the pain intensified, San Antonio Texas Med Clinic discovered a “cantaloupe-sized” tumor via MRI in his abdomen.
Dr. Dennis Rousseau from Surgical Oncologist of South Texas successfully removed the tumor in 2018. His first recurrence occurred during the summer of 2020 in the lungs, and all nodules were removed by the team from Surgical Oncologist of South Texas. Joey had a second recurrence in 2021 near his spleen while being seen by the medical staff at MD Anderson, but due to some technical and clerical errors, he returned to his original team in San Antonio to get that tumor removed.
His third recurrence happened in 2022, where he had another metastasis in his lung and was treated with chemotherapy and radiation at MD Anderson, which helped reduce the tumor size. Recently, another PET scan discovered he had six more metastases in his chest cavity, and he is currently trying to enroll in the PRAME CAR T-cell clinical therapy trial.