Lucas, a 13-year-old from Belgium, has defied the odds and become the first child in the world known to be cured of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive brain cancer. Diagnosed at just six years old, Lucas faced a grim prognosis, with doctors delivering the heartbreaking news to his parents.
Years later, however, hope has blossomed. A seven-year journey through innovative treatment has resulted in no trace of the tumor remaining. Dr. Jacques Grill, head of the brain tumor program at the Gustave Roussy cancer center in Paris, who treated Lucas, describes him as having "beaten all the odds."
DIPG is notorious for its aggressive nature and lack of effective treatment options. Around 300 children in the United States and 100 in France are diagnosed with this devastating illness each year. Lucas's case offers a beacon of hope in the ongoing fight against this formidable cancer.
Ahead of International Childhood Cancer Day on Thursday, the medical community has praised advances that mean 85 percent of children now survive more than five years after being diagnosed with cancer.
But the outlook for children with the DIPG tumour remains grim-most do not live a year beyond diagnosis. A recent study found that only 10 percent were alive two years later.
Radiotherapy can sometimes slow the rapid march of the aggressive tumour, but no drug has been shown to be effective against it.
'No other case like him'
Lucas and his family travelled from Belgium to France so that he could become one of the first patients to join the BIOMEDE trial, which tests potential new drugs for DIPG.
From the start, Lucas responded strongly to the cancer drug everolimus, which he was randomly assigned.
"Over a series of MRI scans, I watched as the tumour completely disappeared," Grill told AFP.
But the doctor did not dare stop the treatment regimen -- at least until a year and a half ago, when Lucas revealed he was no longer taking the drugs anyways.
"I don't know of any other case like him in the world," Grill said.
Exactly why Lucas so fully recovered, and how his case could help other children like him in the future, remains to be seen.
Seven other children in the trial survived years after being diagnosed, but only Lucas's tumour completely vanished.
The reason these children responded to the drugs, while others did not, was likely due to the "biological particularities" of their individual tumours, Grill said.
"Lucas's tumour had an extremely rare mutation which we believe made its cells far more sensitive to the drug," he added.
(With inputs from AFP)
