Adaptive Therapy May Help Kids Cope With Cancer
BOSTON (CBS) -- Salma Costa, now five years old, had surgery, nine months of chemotherapy and then radiation which knocked her off her feet.
The young girl suffers from medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Fabiana Costa, Salma's mom says, "She was very nauseaou. She would be vomiting all day. She didn't want to play or do anything. She just wanted to lay down."
Despite aggressive treatment for , her tumor came back and doctors referred her to palliative care. But her mom was afraid to give up.
"I called her doctor and I begged her to help us out with any trial treatments," she said.
One year ago, Salma began a new unconventional approach called adaptive therapy, currently reserved for children with no other options.
"We will treat them based on the molecular markers that are present in their tumors," says Dr. Giannoula Lakka Klement of Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts. "Any genetic changes, any proteins that are activated, any pathways that may lead to tumor growth."
The treatment allows doctors to use lower doses of chemotherapy.
"They don't look sick. They aren't sick," says Salma's doctor. "They may have some toxicities with these biologic agents, but they aren't as severe as to prevent them from going to school, playing with their friends, and living."
And that's what Salma is doing. Living with cancer.
"She's a completely different child," says Salma's mom. "She's back to normal. She plays, she likes to go out, (and) she's happy."
"I have children who would have been expected to die on therapy going to school and doing well," says the doctor.
Salma just had another MRI to see if the therapies are working, but her mom is optimistic that she will continue to thrive.
"Don't let this disease take your hope because there's always a hope somewhere," she says.
