Sekwon Jang, MD, is board certified in medical oncology, hematology and internal medicine. He serves as Inova’s director of Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology Therapeutics and Research at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute. He has a special interest in melanoma and other skin cancers.

Yesterday, Teresa and I consulted with Dr. Sekwon Jang, MD, who is a member of the Inova Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The center is Inova's new multi-specialty melanoma and cutaneous oncology center and a clinical partner of Inova Translational Medicine Institute that conducts genomics research.

He thoroughly went through my medical history involving melanoma and even talked about my case with his peers. Basically, he reiterated the same diagnosis of what my primary oncologist said to me about a week ago. "Alex, your reoccurrence and location of the tumor indicates the melanoma cancer cells are in your blood stream."

As Dr. Jang continued talking and giving me more of those "cancer" statistics, I heard basically the same song that there is an 80 percent chance of another reoccurrence and more than 50% of Stage IV Melanoma cancer patients die within five years or less.

Then he paused to hear my response.

The only thing that I said, "As a former Marine, I just want to counterattack this son-of-a-b!$%# and burn the village to the ground."

He didn't give me much of a non-verbal response to my brash analogy, but I think he appreciated my fighting spirit.

Now, we wait to see if I am eligible to undergo an alternative treatment he suggested. It’s a newly developed immunotherapy treatment that consists of a drug called “Ipilimumab”, or simply known as YERVOY.

If I am eligible, and if I do decide to undergo this form of treatment, I hope to start within the next two weeks.

ajh