At the young age of 26, Dr. Paul Sepe is a three-time survivor of osteogenic sarcoma, one of the most common types of bone cancer found in children and young adults. After aggressive treatment, surgery and rehabilitation, Paul is cancer-free, physically active and pursuing a career in medicine.

Paul's story began the summer before he started high school. At age 13, he was an athletic adolescent who loved sports and dreamed of becoming a baseball player. Those dreams were put on hold after Paul's cancer diagnosis resulted in surgery to remove the fibula bone in his left lower leg.

Paul underwent chemotherapy, only to have the cancer recur four months later, in his right shoulder. A second surgery removed Paul's right scapula and most of his collarbone. Complex procedures were performed to reconstruct and reattach the shoulder muscles, allowing Paul to have nearly full use of his arm. More chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant followed to prevent the cancer from spreading further. But six months later, during Paul's senior year of high school, another tumor was found in his right wrist bone.

This time, Paul's doctor used an allograft (bone graft) procedure to replace the bone in his wrist with a cadaver bone from a bone bank. Without the replacement bone, Paul would have had limited use of his right hand. Although he had to undergo several more rounds of chemotherapy, Paul has now been in remission for more than nine years.

Paul credits the innovative surgical techniques used by his doctors with curing his cancer and allowing him to maintain a fully active life throughout his treatment. He continued to play baseball and basketball frequently and earned a letter in track in his senior year in high school. Later, during a semester abroad at Oxford University in England, Paul was chosen for the varsity baseball team.

Neither Paul nor his doctors expected his recovery to be as complete as it has been.

"In addition to allowing me to walk and run again, and to use my arm and shoulder, orthopaedics and my surgeon, gave me my life," he says. Paul's experiences also changed his goals and aspirations. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, he is now a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, the same hospital where he was treated as a cancer patient.

Without orthopaedic intervention, cures would not be possible for patients with bone tumors like Paul's. New surgical techniques make these cures possible and reduce the likelihood of permanent disability for survivors. As Paul says, "Better techniques and better interventions are always on the horizon. It is research funding that makes all of that possible, and allows patients like me to enjoy the life that was almost taken from them."