Melanoma Patient Stories

Diane Ciccoli

Diane Ciccoli

  • GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor)
  • Melanoma
Diane Ciccoli

Toward the end of 2019, I started having pain on my right side. I finally went to my primary care doctor in January of 2020, and she sent me to get a CT scan. It didn’t show anything, but the pain wasn’t going away, so she sent me to get an MRI with contrast. I was out to lunch with a girlfriend when my doctor called and told me, “Diane, I’m so sorry, but you have a tumor.”

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Anthony Christinzie

Anthony Christinzie

  • Melanoma
  • Head & Neck Cancer
Anthony Christinzie

Twelve years ago, when I was 59 years old, I was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the tongue. I had some pain on the left side of my tongue, and I unfortunately ignored it. I thought it would go away. Eventually, I got it looked at and it turned out to be cancer. That’s how I began my journey at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

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Joanne Gannon

  • Melanoma
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In 2014, just after turning 67, I noticed a spot on my leg. When I went to see a dermatologist near where I live in Forked River, New Jersey, he diagnosed me with melanoma. I was really surprised. I’m dark-skinned—Italian—and melanoma is not common in dark-skinned people. I never used tanning beds or laid out a lot in the sun, but I guess it can happen to anyone.

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Nancy Finn

  • Melanoma
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I’m 64 years old and live in Yardley, Pennsylvania, which is just north of Philadelphia. I’m retired now, but I spent many years doing social justice work and fundraising for nonprofits. It was a busy life, which is why, when I developed a lesion on my left shin, I didn’t pay attention to it. Then, literally overnight in 2015, it got really bad. I wound up in the hospital, where they diagnosed me with stage IV melanoma—skin cancer.

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