/ Matthew Pitt / 21 February 2011 /

There was sad news recently when it was revealed popular poker player Chad Brown has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

His wife and fellow professional poker player, Vanessa Rousso, was the first to break the news via her Twitter account. On Saturday she explained, "I hate to break this news, but my husband had was recently diagnosed w a rare form of cancer. A large tumour was removed yest." Due to Twitter only allowing the user to type 140 characters she had to continue her message over two more "tweets."

The first said, "Trying to remain upbeat n positive as we wait 4 final pathol. Report-due next week. We r currently focused on recovery from his major surgery" followed by, "The cancer looks like sarcoma. 10Lb tumor was removed from the retroperitoneal area in his abdomen. Nothing sure till we get pathology report."

A sarcoma is a cancer that arises from transformed connective tissue cells, or the so called middle layer, which forms bone, cartilage and fat. This is completely different to the usual forms of cancer which usually originate from the epithelium cells that line the body. Sarcoma are extremely rare with only 15,000 new cases being diagnosed in the USA every year, a country that sees at least 1,500,000 new cancer cases each year.

The retroperitoneal area where surgeons removed the 10lb tumour is at the back of the abdomen behind the intestines and is quite a difficult area to operate on but it looks as if the surgeons performed an amazing job and Brown was well enough to use a computer the following day as he wrote words of thanks on his Twitter page, "i want to thank everyone for their tremendous support. it means a lot to me. we got through the 1st hurdle about as good as can be expected."

Whether or not Brown will need further surgery or intense treatment will depend on the results of the pathology report but the usual form of follow-up treatment includes radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Again, depending on the grade of the cancer long-term survival rates fluctuate from between 40-70%

It is not known how long Brown has been suffering with the tumour, which we hope is not malignant (cancerous), but he was playing live poker as little as a week ago when he took part in a $1,000 no limit Hold'em rebuy event at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, though he failed to make the cash. Brown had over $3,100,000 in live tournament winnings and we wish him the very best of luck in returning to full health so he can add to that amount in the near future.

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