Bsu’s Allen Undergoes More Cancer Surgery

Boise State University football coach Pokey Allen underwent surgery Thursday to rid his body of a tenacious cancer that has spread to his chest.

Allen, the 52-year-old coach credited with reviving a flagging program, has rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare muscle cancer that affects around 1,000 people a year in the United States.

“He’s out of surgery and stable,” said Marsha Skinner, administrative supervisor at the University of Washington Medical Center. “He hasn’t even talked to his surgeons. He would like to talk to them first.”

Surgery, along with months of chemotherapy that nearly killed Allen, destroyed the grapefruitsized tumor in his right arm muscle. But before the tumor’s defeat, it sent out cancer cells that have lodged in his chest.

Allen is battling cancer in one of its deadliest forms.

“These are highly malignant tumors that generally aren’t cured,” said Hugh Shingleton, a 30-year cancer specialist on the staff of the American Cancer Society.

He was diagnosed with the cancer in his arm in December 1994. The tumor was removed in March 1995. And after eight months of exhaustive chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant procedure, Allen’s cancer was declared in remission last December.

But his doctors said then that the rhabdomyosarcoma could always return and that Allen had only a 35-percent chance of surviving the cancer.

Allen on Aug. 6 took a medical leave of absence as coach. He said he had a lump in his chest and doctors had found cancer in both lungs.

He has a 23-14 record in three years as head coach at Boise State. He led the Broncos to a 13-2 record and the NCAA Division I-AA championship game in 1994, losing to Youngstown State.

Boise State moved from the Big Sky Conference to the Division I-A Big West Conference effective July 1.

Allen previously coached at Portland State, compiling a 64-26-2 record in seven seasons. Previous to that he worked as an assistant at Eastern Washington University.