(page 2 of 4) They will be home next week for a big blowout party, to celebrate and thank everyone. A young leukemia patient Sam befriended in chemotherapy will be the DJ. The staff at the Voorhees center is extremely fond of Sam. Sometimes the lab technicians, who check his blood counts, call him "the King," since he was elected homecoming king last fall at Haddonfield Memorial High School. Nurse Denise Desrochers injected the IV needle into Sam's right hand, right above his knuckles. He didn't flinch. "So where did you decide?" she asked, referring to his college choice. "I still don't know," he said. Sam is choosing between University of Delaware and Loyola University in Baltimore. Once the IV was in, but before getting the drugs, Sam went to Barbara Greenbaum's office for an exam. She is his oncologist. He sat on the table and kicked off his shoes. He said he'd been feeling well, no pain. Then he grimaced. "I just got a whiff of my moccasins," he said. According to Greenbaum, in 1975, only 49 percent of children with leukemia would be cancer-free after five years. Now the success rate is 83 percent and climbing, she said. And survivors who go five years without cancer have only the most remote chance of its coming back. "My anticipation for Sam is growing up, going to college, getting married, having kids - hopefully in that order. That is my expectation." Along with his last chemo treatment, Sam would be getting a bone-marrow biopsy - a needle into his pelvis bone, drawing marrow fragments so staff could be certain there was no evidence of leukemia. That final procedure had been scheduled for the following week, when Sam's parents would be home, but Greenbaum decided to combine the two that morning. "Will I be able to go to my dance tonight?" asked Sam. His jacket and tie were already laid out on the bed.         PREVIOUS PAGE RETURN TO BIO NEXT PAGE