Newport Orthopedic Institute

At first glance, Britton Caillouette appears to be your typical teenager—draped in faded jeans, wearing rugged sneakers and sporting a beanie pulled loosely over his sandy blond hair. However, he is no average teen. Britton has a perspective on life befitting someone many times his age.

In the fall of 1998, when he was just fourteen years old, doctors discovered a tumor on Britton’s left leg. The diagnosis—osteosarcoma of the femur. It was from that moment that Britton began his brave fight against cancer, and started to develop an outlook on life at his young age that most people never achieve in a lifetime.

Britton’s not only a cancer survivor and an extraordinary teen, but he’s also the eldest son of one of Hoag’s preeminent orthopedic surgeons, Dr. James Caillouette. “Its probably an orthopedic surgeon’s worst nightmare to have a son diagnosed with bone cancer,” recalls Britton. “I could tell from that first X-ray that he knew something was seriously wrong. I could see it in his face.”

But in his son’s battle against cancer, Dr. Caillouette put his scrubs and stethoscope aside, preferring to assume a more important role. “As far as my treatment, he didn’t want to be the doctor, he wanted to be the dad.” But as Britton points out, there were advantages of his father being a physician, “He was the connections guy. In finding out what my best treatment options were, my dad was just able to pick up the phone and talk to the chief of oncology at the Mayo Clinic. He had connections all over the country.”

And yet with so many connections at cancer centers throughout the United States, Britton and his family decided to do the majority of his treatment at Hoag. There was no need to fly across country when Britton had a world class cancer center right in his own backyard.

With that decision, the relationship between Britton Caillouette and Hoag Cancer Center began. Under the care of Hoag oncologist Dr. Louis VanderMolen, Britton started a three-month course of pre-operative chemotherapy prior to undergoing surgery to resect the tumor in his leg. Britton remembers the time almost fondly, “During my chemo, I’d get all the nurses in my room and we’d all be laughing. We’d be watching movies or playing video games. At one point, I got them to wheel this huge big screen TV into my room that they had in the lounge.”

After doctors removed the tumor from his leg, Britton did all that he could to prevent the cancer from returning. He practiced meditation and visualization techniques, explored complementary therapies and adhered to a strict macrobiotic diet. “I was eating things I could hardly even pronounce,” he laughs.

“I just tried to keep a positive attitude and hope for the best.” But, despite all his efforts, a little more than a year later, the disease returned; this time presenting itself as a lesion in his lung. So, for the second time, Britton began his battle with cancer and underwent another surgery to remove it. Unfortunately, there were still more battles ahead.

It was only a year after they resected the lesion in his lung, that doctors discovered another tumor on Britton’s left leg. It was in the same area as the original tumor, which had been removed nearly three years before. This time, the only option was amputation. So two weeks later, Britton underwent one final surgery to amputate his left leg directly below the hip.

Most people would consider losing a leg to cancer as a life shattering experience. But Britton, with his ever present optimistic outlook, took it all in stride. “After each surgery, I would start to get healthy again, put on weight, start working out and generally be feeling good. And then all of a sudden, they’d discover more cancer and I’d be back to square one,” Britton states casually. “But it didn’t get me down. I just saw it as another bump in the road; face it and move on.”

And as he describes, losing his leg has never prevented Britton from doing anything he’s wanted to do. “I just realize that I have a different situation and I’ve adapted it into my life,” he says. In fact, just two months after his amputation, before he had even been fitted for a prosthesis, Britton caught a plane to Australia where his cousins were filming a surf video. At one point, he dove in and surfed tandem with his cousin. Unbeknown to Britton, the film crew had captured the whole thing and ended up putting it in the movie. “So only a couple months after the amputation, there I am with this whole scene about me getting back into surfing after losing a leg to cancer,” Britton remembers vividly. “That trip really changed my life.”

Meanwhile, researchers at Hoag Cancer Center’s Cell Biology Laboratory were working to keep Britton surfing and cancer free. Under the direction of Senthamil Selvan, Ph.D., the Cell Biology Lab grew a cell line from the tumor removed during his amputation and used it to create a personalized cancer vaccine. While under the care of Dr. Neil Barth, Britton underwent a six-month series of injections of his irradiated tumor cells and interferon gamma as part of an investigative clinical trial chaired by Hoag Cancer Center Medical Director, Robert O. Dillman, M.D. And so far, it’s been successful; he has yet to experience a recurrence.

Britton has now been free of cancer for the longest interval at any time since his diagnosis was made. “I just got scansover Thanksgiving and they showed no cancer whatsoever,” Britton happily proclaims. “This past November was five years since my initial diagnosis. So I guess I can’t say I’m five years out because my last tumor was removed just three years ago. But three years is still good.” Dr. Dillman notes, “We would like to think that the vaccine is an important component of why Britton remains disease free, and hopefully cured.”

Britton credits his support system—his parents, friends and especially the physicians and nurses at Hoag Cancer Center for giving him the strength and courage to emerge from his battle with such a healthy attitude. “The whole experience can be so depressing,” describes Britton. “It can make you feel like your life is over and that you have nothing else to live for. But to have so many people surrounding me with love and support, it really kept me positive.”

Being faced with cancer at such a young age and having to stare his own mortality in the face, Britton achieved a rare outlook that he recognizes as a gift. “I gained this incredible perspective that not a lot of people get unless you go through a traumatic experience, like mine,” he explains. “I emerged from it with a positive outlook and basically a ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ attitude.”

Questioned now whether he would take it back, he emphatically replies, “I wouldn’t take any of it back. I mean, it would be nice to have my leg, but the whole experience and being able to grow up with the perspective that I now have is a blessing.”

Currently a freshman at Stanford University, Britton Caillouette has a long and bright future ahead of him. When asked how his life is progressing, he simply states, “I’ve got good spirits and I’m very hopeful. I think everything’s going to work out just fine.”