REBOUNDING cancer FROM
Possible life-threatening illness won’t keep coach off court page
For White Hall High School head basketball coach Marc Stringer, sports has always been a way of life. Since his youth, he has been around various sports. This trend continued into high school and college, where he played right tackle for Arkansas Tech University in Russellville from 2001 to 2005.
In spring 2006, Stringer graduated from Arkansas Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in health-physical education. Stringer went on to earn a master’s degree in educational leadership from Arkansas State University.
In April 2015, Stringer married Lauren Coker. During the summer before his sixth year as the head basketball coach at White Hall, Stringer received some alarming news. He was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus. According to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, adenocarcinoma is “cancer that begins in glandular (secretory) cells. Glandular cells in the lining of the esophagus produce and release fluids such as mucus. Adenocarcinomas usually form in the lower part of the esophagus, near the stomach.”
This form of cancer is typically detected in its later stages, as there are few symptoms in the early stages. Stringer said his symptoms began early last year.
“I guess about March or April of last year I started having issues swallowing, and it progressively got worse and worse and worse. It would take me almost an hour to eat a couple of scrambled eggs because it wouldn’t go down, and I’d have to eat very slowly or very small portions,” he said.
Stringer added that he visited his primary-care physician shortly after that and was sent to have an upper endoscopy done. While Stringer and his family thought he might simply have a stricture, the news came back that it was something more. Stringer was sent to Dr. Brad Baltz at CARTI and diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus on July 8, 2016.
The National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health states that as of Feb. 2, there have been 16,940 new cases of esophageal cancer in the United States in 2017 alone, and 15,690 deaths from esophageal cancer in 2017. The institute also states that the current median age of patients with esophageal cancer in the country is 67. At 33 years old at the time of his diagnosis, Stringer certainly falls in the minority.
Dr. Chris Pope, the attending radiation oncologist at CARTI for Stringer, said that through his own research, he found that esophageal cancer affects about 4.3 people per 100,000. He said that if one puts this number into perspective for Arkansas’ population, there are about 122 cases in the state per year.
“It’s not uncommon. I see it several times a year, but it’s definitely not one of the top-10 cancers,” he said.
Before Stringer had surgery to help eliminate the cancer, he underwent 25 radiation treatments and 10 chemotherapy treatments.
Stringer said he was taken by surprise at the diagnosis, especially because of how active he was.
“I was probably in the best shape I’ve been in ever, and you’re just kind of shocked like, is this really happening? You’re questioning, ‘How did this happen?’ and of course, we don’t get a good answer. They just kind of gave us, ‘ Hey, this just happened,’” he said. “I didn’t have any of the precursors that lead to it. I’ve never used tobacco, I wasn’t overweight, I didn’t drink, I didn’t have any acid reflux, and then here I am with esophageal cancer.”
Stringer added that he has no family history of cancer, either.
During his time at Arkansas Tech as a starting right tackle, Stringer was listed on the roster at 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 275 pounds. He said that at his heaviest during football, he was 285. After going through treatments and the side effects of the cancer, Stringer dropped to a surprising 180 pounds.
“When you go from being in the best shape of your life to you have to have help getting out of bed, it’s a pretty humbling experience,” he said.
In order to eliminate the cancer, Stringer underwent a procedure called the Ivor Lewis surgery.
“They went in and took out two-thirds of my esophagus, about a third of my stomach — I even lost a rib to it,” he said. “He took a rib out to have room to do the surgery. He said, ‘I’ll just take the rib out; you don’t need it,’ instead of having to break it and [me] having to get over a broken rib also. Then they took what was left of my stomach and tubed it out and made my new esophagus with my stomach. So pretty much, there’s not a pouch. There’s just a tube running from my esophagus to intestines now.”
After this procedure, Stringer was hospitalized for 10 days to recover. For his post-op treatment, Stringer has to undergo 26 more chemotherapy treatments, which he is currently in the process of finishing up. Despite the abundance of treatments and the length of his recovery time, Stringer tried his best to avoid missing too much time with his basketball team.
“When I was doing all my pre-op treatment, radiation and chemo, I missed sporadically — probably five or six days here and there. When I had my surgery, I was gone from practice, for sure, for two weeks, really three because that week I came back, I pretty much just sat and watched practice. I didn’t partake much because, physically, I couldn’t do it,” he said.
Now Stringer is back on the court and fully participating in the team’s practice, as well as games.
He said the experience of having esophageal cancer has definitely opened his eyes to the challenges of life.
“It makes you appreciate things a lot more. Any and everything. And it makes you learn how to fight,” he said. “I played college football, and I thought that was the toughest thing I had ever been through until this. You kind of find out how strong you are mentally and physically after going through this stuff. I promise, the hardest thing is the mental battle that came with it. You learn what a fight really is with this.”
Pope said Stringer’s attitude throughout the entire process was extremely positive.
“His attitude was fantastic. I definitely remember that. He stood out in my mind because we don’t see 34-year-olds with cancer very often,” Pope said. “He’s an athlete. He was probably the person in the best shape when I saw him initially of any patient I’ve ever treated in 20 years, and that definitely helped him. His mental attitude was great. He was very positive. He was very ‘I’m going to beat this; I’m going to succeed,’ and he was driven, more than what I typically see.”
Stringer said being able to connect with the other patients at CARTI also helped him get through the recovery, as the patients could share their fight.
“It’s like every time I come up here [to CARTI], you meet somebody new, and you kind of see their battle. So right there, just the people that you’re fighting with, the same battles, you kind of motivate each other in going through that,” he said. “[My biggest inspiration was] family, my wife’s family and my family. Just being that support system for you is just key to getting through this because if you don’t have a team around you that’s helping support you, you don’t have a chance against this stuff.”
For others who may be going through a similar battle, Stringer said, they need to try to maintain some sort of normalcy in their lives.
“After you get over the shock of it, get you a support system,” he said. “That’s been the biggest thing — just having somebody there that you can talk to, vent to, just get things off your chest has been a big help. Try to stay in your normal routine the best you can because if you just sit around and think ‘ woe is me,’ it’s just going to eat at your mind, and you’re going to lose the battle.”
Pope added that a positive mental attitude is one of the best attributes patients can bring to the table to help them beat cancer.
“I firmly believe that a positive mental attitude really can translate to your ability to get through the treatment and tolerate the significant side effects in a better way and more successfully,” he said. “You could never show that in research, because what’s the test that shows a positive mental attitude? But over the course of my career, I think people who do come to me determined, I’m not saying they have a better cure rate, but in terms of just tolerating all the trials and tribulations, if you have a positive attitude, it makes it easier.”
Along with a positive attitude, Pope said it is important for people to notice warning signs.
“The way your esophagus works most days, you don’t realize that once [food] gets out of your mouth, you don’t feel it. If you start feeling some discomfort and things aren’t going as smoothly as they should, and that persists time after time after time, that’s a warning sign,” he said. “[Another warning sign is] unexpected weight loss. That isn’t the way Mother Nature works. If you’re not exercising more or eating less, you’re not going to lose weight, so if weight starts melting off for no reason — big warning sign for all types of cancer.”
After the surgery, the doctors told Stringer that they got clear margins and all of the cancer had been removed. When Stringer went in for another scan the day before Thanksgiving in 2016, the scan was clear. Stringer’s most recent scan in February came back clear as well.
Despite all the obstacles and adversity Stringer has had to overcome, he still steps onto the court on a daily basis with the objective of teaching his young players about fundamentals and teamwork.