Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

People line up to place candles in a cross on the Floyd County High School track during a candlelight vigil for two boys diagnosed with brain tumors. The children have ties to the high school’s basketball program.

Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

People pray on the Floyd High basketball court for the son and grandson of Floyd’s basketball coaches. The 3- and 4-year-olds have brain tumors and will be treated by the same physician at the Duke cancer center.

Already linked in their eerily timed battle against brain cancer, the grandson of Floyd County High School girls' basketball coach Alan Cantrell and the son of Floyd boys' basketball coach Brian Harman will be treated by the same physician at Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Three-year-old Joshua Cantrell, who underwent emergency surgery at Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital on Dec. 29 to remove a malignant tumor on his brain, will be admitted to Duke today for further treatment and evaluation, said the school's athletic director, Clay Moran.

Joshua will be joined at Duke on Thursday by 4-year-old Chance Harman, who will begin radiation as early as this weekend for two malignant brain tumors and two more on the spine.

"We're probably going to stay for a pretty long time," Brian Harman said.

The reunion marks the latest chapter in a series of strange coincidences that began over the Christmas holiday for the two boys whose families have known each other for more than a decade and have extended ties to the Floyd County basketball program and community.

Brian Harman, a former assistant coach under Cantrell, took a leave of absence from his coaching responsibilities in mid-December after learning of his son's brain tumors. Further tests persuaded the Harmans to take Chance to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk. It was about the same time that Joshua began vomiting and suffering from headaches. A CAT scan later showed a spot on his brain.

Alan Cantrell, his wife, Gayle, their son Travis and wife Laura took Joshua to Carilion in Roanoke, where doctors believe they removed 90 percent to 95 percent of the tumor. Physicians took out only about 50 percent of the larger of Chance's two brain tumors. Joshua returned home Wednesday; Chance on Monday. All signs point to Chance's tumor being an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor, known as an ATRT. Indications are that Joshua may have the same.

"If it's not that, it's very similar," Harman said.

An ATRT is a rare tumor found most commonly in children younger than 2 years old and located in the cerebellum -- the lower, back portion of the brain that controls balance. Children age 3 or older have a survival rate of about 70 percent when treated with chemotherapy and radiation following surgery. The survival rate for children younger than 3 is less than 10 percent.

"They've made some huge jumps here lately by doing radiation first," Harman said. "That's what we're holding to."

Joshua (left) and Chance (right) -- are battling brain tumors.

Meanwhile, back in Floyd, friends continue to rally behind both families after Harman and Cantrell praised the community last week for their outpouring of support.

Monday night at the high school, between 500 and 600 people attended a candlelight vigil in honor of both boys at Floyd County High School's track.

Friends of the Harmans and Cantrells are asking churches in the Floyd community to open their doors to the public Wednesday for what is being called the "Floyd County Day of Prayer." That night at Giles High School, money raised at a spaghetti dinner benefit sponsored by the Giles varsity and junior varsity boys' basketball teams will go to the Harman and Cantrell families, as will proceeds from concessions at the remaining Floyd County basketball games this season.

"These families have affected in a positive manner so many people through school and through sports," said Patricia Vaughn, a friend of the families. "There's been such an outpouring of people that just want to know. They want to know where to pray, where can I send something, how can I donate, what can I do? The outpouring from the community has been incredible."

A new Web site, samefight.org, will be launched in the next few days and will feature updates on Joshua's and Chance's conditions.

"No matter how this turns out, people's lives have been affected for the better," Vaughn said.

More on the two families in the same fight against tumors