A young man brushing off shoulder pain and lung "niggles" as the wear and tear of boxing training. A health professional chalking up a warm sensation in her leg to workplace stress. For two Australians, symptoms that seemed entirely explainable turned out to be signs of one of the country's deadliest and least recognised cancers — sarcoma.
Symptoms dismissed for months — even years
Sam Mathias was 22, wrapping up his university degree and preparing to launch a career in banking, when he first noticed something was off. A sore shoulder and strange sensations in his lungs barely registered as cause for concern for the otherwise fit young man.
"To be honest with you, I didn't," Mr Mathias says when asked whether cancer ever crossed his mind. "I think it was maybe just being a young fit man otherwise. I think I'm perennially a bit of an optimist as well."
After roughly a year of dismissing his symptoms, Mr Mathias noticed an enlarged lymph node in his neck. Even then, the path to diagnosis was obstructed — a clinic turned him away for appearing too young and healthy to warrant a biopsy. It was only after severe chest pain led to an urgent X-ray that he was taken straight to hospital.
Because his cancer presented so unusually, specialists spent another 10 to 12 weeks analysing tissue samples, ultimately sending them to an expert in Boston for confirmation. By that point, the cancer had spread to his lungs, neck lymph nodes and bones. He credits a key person in his life — who took his symptoms far more seriously than he did — with pushing him to seek help when he might otherwise have waited even longer.
For Angela de Weger, a chiropractor and occupational health researcher, the warning signs appeared over two years. What felt like warm water running down her leg was initially attributed by doctors to stress, as she balanced full-time work, a research degree and caring for her young son.
"I didn't want to believe that it was anything more than that," Ms de Weger said. The explanation seemed plausible enough — until she experienced what she believed was a stroke while sitting at her desk. A nine-hour operation later, surgeons confirmed she had a rare grade-three brain sarcoma. Despite more than 35 years working in health, she was completely blindsided. "I thought, 'I'm healthy, I live a good healthy life and didn't think it could happen to me'."
What makes sarcoma so difficult to detect
Sarcoma is a rare group of cancers that can develop in bone, cartilage or soft tissue virtually anywhere in the body. That broad range of possible locations — and the absence of a clear, defining symptom — makes early detection particularly challenging.
Medical oncologist Dr Vivek Bhadri explains that there is no single red flag. "There's no one specific symptom," he says. "Oftentimes people will have non-specific symptoms." Young patients with persistent knee pain, for example, are frequently assumed to have sporting injuries or growing pains, while a painless lump elsewhere might not prompt immediate concern.
"It's only when things haven't gotten better after several weeks that someone might go, 'Actually, you know, something's not quite right here. We need to do something else,'" Dr Bhadri says.
A cancer that is underfunded despite its deadly toll
The statistics surrounding sarcoma paint a stark picture of a disease that remains under the radar in Australia. One in three Australians diagnosed with sarcoma will not survive beyond five years , yet the disease receives less than one per cent of Australia's total cancer research funding.
It is also disproportionately prevalent among young people, accounting for roughly one in five cancers diagnosed in adolescents and young adults — a demographic that, like Mr Mathias, may be least likely to suspect cancer as the cause of their symptoms.
Both survivors say greater awareness of sarcoma's subtle and varied signs could make a critical difference in how quickly patients receive a diagnosis — and ultimately, how many lives are saved.
