For those of you who are not within the Manchester area, we have been raising money for a little boy called Theo, this is his story so far…
In July 2015, Theo was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma. It has spread to his bones, skull, spine, hips and legs. Neuroblastoma is an extremely aggressive form of childhood cancer with survival rates between 35-50%. Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer and the most common cancer diagnosed in children under 5 years old. In most cases it is only diagnosed when it has already progressed to a late ‘high risk’ stage. Even when children are tested clear of neuroblastoma after initial hospital treatment, a high proportion will relapse and in the case of relapse there is no standard treatment path to follow.
Now that Theo is undergoing hospital treatment we need the public to help us raise funds for potentially lifesaving treatment. If Theo were to relapse, which is common in children with high risk neuroblastoma, we want him to have access to a wide range of clinical trials, including those not currently available in the UK, to be able to give him the best possible chance of survival.
The latest update shows that Theo’s scans revealed that the neuroblastoma is still present in one spot on his hip/top of leg. The chemotherapy has cleared the rest of the metastatic disease from the other places it had spread to. His bone marrow aspirates were clear of neuroblastoma cells, but the bone marrow trephine test showed disease still present. Therefore, Theo will not be having surgery on the date that was planned. He will be having two extra cycles of chemotherapy in the hope it will clear the remaining disease. This chemotherapy is called TVD which is starting tomorrow. Topotecan, Vincristine and Doxorubicin. After the two cycles Theo will then repeat the scans and bone marrow tests to see if it has worked in getting rid of the remaining cancer.
