Former Green Bay, New England, and Cleveland football player Joe Andruzzi has just completed the first of a 12-step series of chemotherapy treatments for Burkitt's lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Andruzzi, married and dad to four children, was released by the Browns on May 2 so he and his family could move to New Jersey. Then last week, Andruzzi began experiencing abdominal pain and other symptoms. He consulted with the Browns' medical staff, underwent a colonoscopy, learned an abnormality was found, and then headed to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston where he was diagnosed with Burkitt's.
The cure rate for Burkitt's -- a rapidly growing, rare form of cancer that strikes only 100 people in the United States each year -- is about 80 percent if patients receive intensive therapy, according to the National Cancer Institute. The other patient survival factor is the stage of the disease. Andruzzi's stage has not been publicly reported.
Andruzzi, a 10-year NFL veteran, is no stranger to cancer. In 2002, he befriended a 15-year-old boy with inoperable brain cancer and went on to establish a trust in the boy's name -- the C.J. Buckley's Fund -- through Children's Hospital in Boston. To date, Andruzzi has raised more than $400,000 for children's brain cancer research.
Fans can send cards to Andruzzi at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, Mass. 02115. Contributions to C.J. Buckley's Fund can be sent to Children's Hospital Trust, 1 Autumn St. 731, Boston, Mass. 02215-5301.
