When Maelle’s vision started to “go a little crazy” and reoccurring headaches appeared, she came to Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in search of answers. In 2014, our doctors diagnosed her with pilocytic astrocytoma: an optic glioma that presented itself as a three-centimeter tumor near her optic nerve. Maelle immediately began traditional chemotherapy, but after 10-months of off and on treatment, an MRI showed that she needed to continue treatment. But this time, Maelle and her family decided to continue their journey in the Experimental Therapeutics Program.
“The goal of the Experimental Therapeutics Program is to move science forward and to really find those next therapies that will treat these relapsed and refractory tumors or tumors that have come back despite the best therapy,” says Meg Macy, MD, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist.
Maelle first enrolled in a clinical trial that initially shrunk her tumor, but after some time off medication, her tumor began to grow again. Maelle decided to enter a second clinical trial that – amazingly – was able to stabilize her recurrent tumor and shrink it even further. When asked why she wants to be a part of experimental treatment, Maelle says:
“I am helping kids out and that’s what I want to do because there are kids like me out there that need the medication.”
As the largest early- phase clinical trial program in the Rocky Mountain region, we work to give families the opportunity to try different therapies with the goal of finding a new treatment that will prove successful, like it was for Maelle. With 50 to 70 trials available for unique tumors and different types of patients, our Program is a national leader in new and advanced treatments.
“When you’re there, you feel like your child is the only one that matters,” says Maelle’s mom, Kristen. “That’s the kind of service they give you.”
After years of treatment, Maelle is excited that her tumor is stable and to go on her next journey – 8th grade!
To learn more about the Experimental Therapeutic Program, visit: https://www.childrenscolorado.org/doctors-and-departments/departments/cancer-and-blood-disorders/programs/experimental-therapeutics-program/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=slg_ccbd
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