Today is Oligo Day!
Happy Oligo Day to the 20,000 Americans living with this disease. You matter. Your lives matter. And you deserve to be celebrated.
People with rare brain cancers are often overlooked by the medical and pharmaceutical communities. There simply isn’t enough attention, funding, or financial incentive directed toward finding a cure. In the case of oligodendroglioma, only about 20,000 people in the U.S. are living with it.
And the hard part is, there is no cure.
For many patients, “hope” means praying their tumor doesn’t grow again after surgery or treatment. But when it often does, they are forced back into another cycle of scans, uncertainty, surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, and fear.
What many people don’t realize is that even after surgery or treatment, the cancer doesn’t simply disappear. From the outside, it can look like someone is “better” or even cured. But for most brain tumor patients, there is still a massive elephant in the room.
The reality is that this never fully goes away. They live with the weight of it every day, knowing it could return, grow, or change their future at any moment. That uncertainty follows them long after the hospital stays and surgeries are over.
That’s why I continue to talk about it. Because these people matter. Their lives matter. And they deserve more than being overlooked.