At first glance, little Victoria Thompson looks like your average happy and healthy toddler.
You’d have no idea that once upon a time, she had a tumor on her kidney the size of a volleyball. You’d have no idea that she’s part of a national trial with MUSC Children’s Health to investigate neuroblastoma. That’s the name of her disorder, a rare one that develops in the abdomen, chest, neck and around the spine. It usually affects children 5 years or younger.
The survival rate for the deadly form of cancer is 60 percent, with 700 children being diagnosed every year in the U.S. To learn more about neuroblastoma, click here.
After rigorous treatments, her previous volleyball-sized belly has returned to normal. The treatment is allowing for doctors to examine the tumor’s shrinkage and assess how to avoid it coming back in the future. Like all trials, there is extensive investigation, patience and medical detective work.
Victoria’s doctor Jacqueline Kraveka of MUSC is the said detective, her very own Doctor House, who leaves no stone unturned.
“We’re trying to develop drugs that are more targeted at MUSC Children’s Health,” she says. “They’re drugs that target the genetic makeup of the tumor, thereby improving response and preventing a lot of the side effects that kids get later on.”
Neuroblastoma is one of the many forms of cancer that Kraveka is dedicated to investigating and according to Kraveka, most people haven’t heard of it. For Victoria, it started off as a fever and swollen stomach. If they hadn’t caught it as early as they did, she might not be here today.
Victoria is undergoing a number of cutting edge procedures including a DFMO, a drug that is primarily used to treat an African sleeping sickness that could potentially stop neuroblastoma from occurring. So far, it seems to be working as they have yet to see an increase in side effects.
They hope to finalize treatments before Thanksgiving so she could go home and fill her now normal-sized belly with turkey with her loved ones.
