Young boy beats rare brain cancer in world first
A 13-year-old boy from Belgium has become the first person in the world to be cured from a deadly brain cancer.
Lucas Jemeljanova was only six-years-old when he was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive brain cancer which kills 98 per cent of sufferers within five years.
He was randomly assigned to receive everolimus, a type of chemotherapy drug during a clinical trial. The drug is commonly used to treat kidney, pancreas, breast and brain cancer, but up to this point has not been successfully used to treat DIPG.
Seven years later, Lucas has responded well to the treatment and has no trace of cancer, and has officially been in remission for five years.
His doctor, Jacques Grill said that Lucas "beat the odds" and his case "offers real hope".
Lucas was one of the first few people enrolled in the BIOMEDE trial in France, which was testing potential new drugs for DIPG.
The drug works by preventing the cancer cells from reproducing and decreasing blood supply to the cancer cells, and it is an FDA approved prescription drug for cancer.
Doctors were initially hesitant to stop the treatment until a year ago and a half ago.
"I didn’t know when to stop, or how, because there was no reference in the world," Dr Grill told the AFP.
"Over a series of MRI scans, I watched as the tumour completely disappeared," he added.
Seven other children who were also in the trial have been considered "long responders", as they haven't had any relapses for three years after their diagnosis, but only Lucas was cured.
The reason behind his complete recovery is still unknown, but it could be because of "biological particularities" in his tumour.
"Lucas' tumour had an extremely rare mutation which we believe made its cells far more sensitive to the drug," Dr Grill added.
DIPG is typically found in children between ages five and nine.
The cause of the tumour is unknown but some of the first symptoms include problems with eye movement and balance, facial weakness, difficulty walking and strange limb movements.
Researchers are currently trying to reproduce the difference seen in Lucas' cells.
"Lucas is believed to have had a particular form of the disease," Dr Grill said.
"We must understand what and why to succeed in medically reproducing in other patients what happened naturally with him."
However Dr Grill said that this process won't be quick.
"On average, it takes 10-15 years from the first lead to become a drug – it's a long and drawn-out process."
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