Cancer diagnosis leads to career

The Lizton, Indiana native was in the middle of his own battle with cancer.

“I was diagnosed with non-metastatic pineal germinoma, a cell tumor found near the pineal gland in the brain,” he says. A high school athlete, Porter says he’d been noticing problems on the baseball field with coordination as well as migraines and fatigue. “I have a family history of migraines, so that’s what my doctors were treating, but when things got worse, they sent me for a scan, and the cancer was discovered,” he adds.

Porter’s physician at Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis put together a treatment plan for him that involved chemotherapy and proton radiation at the Indiana University (IU) Health Proton Therapy Center, formerly known as the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. 

Proton therapy is a form of radiation treatment used for certain types of cancers and lymphomas. A major advantage over traditional forms of radiotherapy is its ability to deliver radiation to a tumor area with remarkable precision, sparing healthy tissues. There are only 27 proton therapy centers in the U.S.

Porter was found to be cancer free in July 2009, but he experienced other issues as a result of his treatment, including avascular necrosis—death of bone tissue due to a lack of blood supply—in his hip. It required an unconventional hip replacement at 18 years old, but allowed him to boat and waterski again—two of his favorite pastimes. He also had corrective surgery on his eye, as the tumor put pressure on his right eye muscle leading to double vision and a “lazy eye.”

However, throughout it all, he kept his goal of becoming a radiation therapist in mind, and after graduating high school in 2011, he worked toward his associate’s degree in radiation therapy at Ivy Tech Community College, Bloomington. He also earned an advanced proton therapy specialist certificate.  

“While I was earning my degree, the IU Health Proton Therapy Center shut down, and I was a bit discouraged, because it was my dream job, but little did I know that the UC Health Proton Therapy Center would be opening in 2016,” he says. “It was all part of a plan.”

And when Porter graduated in 2016, the proton center in Cincinnati was looking for new and eager radiation therapists. 

He’s been working at the facility since it opened, and sees purpose in every day and in every patient with whom he interacts.