“I can’t help but dream of a future where cancer is not a life-altering diagnosis”

Three years ago, Summer Konechny was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the same cancer Terry Fox had. Today, she’s sharing her sequencing data – and her story – so precision medicine can bring new hope for herself and others.

*By Summer Konechny, Patient Working Group Member

My name is Summer Konechny, and at age twenty-three, I received an osteosarcoma diagnosis that has significantly changed the course of my life. The past three years have included ten gruelling rounds of high dose inpatient chemotherapy, a complicated limb salvaging surgery on my left leg, a rare life-threatening reaction to chemotherapy, an endoprosthetic hardware failure, and now, a recurrence three years after I first received my diagnosis.  

Needless to say, I’ve been kept busy - but I have also dedicated as much time as I can to sharing my lived experience through patient partnerships & personal advocacy. I want to raise awareness of the experience of people with rare and  adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers, not only for research purposes, but to help others facing the same situation that I did three years ago feel less alone. 

My only familiarity with osteosarcoma before I got sick was Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope story, and frankly, it both frightened and inspired me. I didn’t want to lose my leg, and I didn’t want to pass away young, but I was determined to remain hopeful, and persevere through treatment as best as I could. As my treatment started and my nine hour long orthopedic surgery was completed, I began to feel more at ease. The limb salvaging surgery I had is relatively new, and very effective. I relearned to walk slowly, adjusting to the knee replacement, muscle relocation and partial tibia replacement as best as I could. Surgery methods and cancer treatment have come a long way since Terry was with us, and there’s no doubt that because of his mission, I am still here today. I have had the privilege of accessing cancer care that is better researched than it was in the 1980s, and for that, I am forever grateful. 

Precision medicine has only recently been added as a potential option for my treatment. When my cancer came back at the end of 2024, I was presented with the opportunity to have my genomes sequenced when they removed the nodules from my lungs. I enthusiastically enrolled in Personalized OncoGenomics (POG), a precision oncology program supported by the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. I was told that my first recurrence would be given curative treatment, but since Osteosarcoma is so aggressive, there’s no guarantee that there won’t be a second. I was made well aware that there is a good chance that I would need treatment again in the future, and that next time, surgery may not be feasible.  

I was also told that even if my POG data came back with very little answers for me personally, that it would help people receiving osteosarcoma diagnoses in the future, hopefully aiding in the treatment of future generations of cancer patients.  

Having my genomes sequenced opened up more data for informed decision making about my health in the future, and has provided me with a deep sense of peace surrounding my long term survival. Knowing that all my bases are covered before they actually need to be is extremely comforting, and I am very thankful that the program is accessible to me when I need it most. Coming to terms with the fact that I am facing a stage four, rare and aggressive cancer diagnosis in my mid-twenties has been made a lot easier by my research-involved care team and by being involved in groups such as the Patient Working Group. Getting involved in research and patient advocacy has put me at the forefront of all of the innovations being made in the research world and has allowed me to remain hopeful about my diagnosis. I am well aware of the grim outlook for patients tackling a metastatic sarcoma diagnosis, and I am determined to help change it. 

I hope that the Patient Working Group stands as an example to other patients that we can be involved in the future of cancer care, and that we can control a part of our uncontrollable diagnoses. I also hope that the Patient Working Group showcases to researchers and governing bodies that patient involvement in research is not only useful, but essential to creating patient centred care for better health outcomes. Every day that I hear of a new advancement in treatment, early detection or personalized medicine, I can’t help but dream of a future where cancer is not a life altering diagnosis. The future of precision medicine is fast approaching, and I hope to hear many more stories of patients' lives being significantly impacted – not by cancer – but by lifesaving precision medicine and personalized care.