A TEENAGE boy has been cured of the deadliest childhood cancer a world first.
Lucas, from Belgium, was just six years old when he was diagnosed with brainstem glioma, a particularly brutal cancer.
France 3TVDr Jacques Grill (pictured) watched Lucas’s brain tumour completely disappear[/caption]
Children found to have the disease are typically given nine to 12 months to live after diagnosis.
Lucas was diagnosed shortly after his parents noticed he struggled to walk in a straight line, according to France 24.
His doctor, Jacques Grill, remembers having to tell the little boy’s parents that their son was going to die.
However, seven years later, Lucas is now 13 years old, with no trace of the tumour left.
“Lucas beat all the odds [to survive]”, said Dr Jacques, an oncologist and head of the brain tumour programme at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre in Paris, France.
The tumour, called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is diagnosed in fewer than 40 children each year in the UK and up to 100 in France.
Typically, treatment like radiotherapy extends a patient’s life by just three months.
I don’t know of any other case like him in the world
Dr Jacques Grill
Lucas and his family decided to travel to France so that he could join the BIOMEDE trial, which tests potential new drugs for DIPG.
Lucas was randomly assigned the cancer drug Everolimus, which he responded extremely well to.
“Over a series of MRI scans, I watched as the tumour completely disappeared,” Dr Jacques told Agence France-Presse.
Doctors kept him on the treatment until a year and a half ago when Lucas revealed he was no longer taking the drugs anyway.
“I don’t know of any other case like him in the world,” the doctor said.
FUTURE CANCER CURE
Seven other children in the trial survived years after being diagnosed, but only Lucas’s tumour completely vanished without a trace.
However, experts think Lucas’s miraculous recovery could hold the key to curing other children in the future.
The reason why some tumours respond better to treatments than others is because some cancer cells are more sensitive to medicines, Dr Jacques said.
The researchers are studying the genetic abnormalities of patients’ tumours as well as creating tumour “organoids,” which are masses of cells produced in the lab.
Scientists want to reproduce his genetic differences in the organoids to see if they test whether that tumour can be killed off as effectively as Lucas.
If this is successful, the “next step will be to find a drug that has the same effect on tumour cells as these cellular changes,” Prof Marie-Anne Debily, Université d’Évry Val d’Essonne, in Paris, said.
While the researchers are positive about this new potential cure, they warned that any possible treatment is still a long way off.
“On average, it takes 10-15 years from the first lead to become a drug – it’s a long and drawn-out process,” Dr Jacques added.
What are the symptoms of DIPG?
Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) is one of the most common high-grade brain tumours in kids.
That means that it tends to grow fast and spread to other parts of the brain or spinal cord quickly.
Symptoms can include:
Abnormal alignment of the eyes or/and double vision (diplopia)
Weakness of facial muscles or facial asymmetry (one side of the face appearing different from the other)
Arm and leg weakness
Unstable balance and coordination
Difficulties walking and speaking
Surgery often isn’t a viable option because the tumour tends to be in a critical area of the brain.
Because of that, the prognosis is often pretty miserable. Only around 10% of children with DIPG survive longer than two years after diagnosis
Source: The Brain Tumour Charity