A 13-year-old boy from Belgium has become the world's first to be cured of a rare brain cancer. The boy named Lucas was six when he was diagnosed with a fatal Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive brain cancer.

The BIOMEDE trial in France tested the potential new drugs for DIPG. Lucas and his family traveled from Belgium to France to participate in the BIOMEDE trial and became one of the first patients to join the trial.

Dr. Jacques Grill, head of the brain tumor programme at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Centre in Paris said that since the outset, Lucas was responding positively to the cancer drug Everolimus, which he was randomly assigned. Thereupon a seven-year journey through treatments, there is no trace of the tumor remaining.

Dr. Grill expressed that over a series of MRI scans, he watched as the tumor completely disappeared, and the doctors continued to give treatment to Lucas until a year and a half ago. He also said that Lucas's case is unique globally, his tumor had an intensely rare mutation which they believe made its cells far more sensitive to the drug. Seven other children who participated in the trial survived for years after diagnosis. But Lucas’s tumor completely disappeared. However, the exact reasons for Lucas’s recovery and how his case could help other children are yet to be totally comprehended.

Marie-Anne Debily, a researcher who supervises the lab said that Lucas’s case offers real hope. They will try to reproduce in vitro the differences that they have identified in his cells. The researchers are also studying the genetic abnormalities of patients’ tumors and cultivating tumor organoids with the intent of replicating the favorable conditions observed in Lucas’s case.

According to doctors, every year around 300 children in the United States and 100 children in France are diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). This is a very rare type of childhood cancer that forms in the brain stem and occurs in the pediatric population. Based on recent studies most children do not live a year post-diagnosis and only ten percent are alive two years later. The doctors also emphasized that sometimes radiotherapy can slow the progression of the tumor, however, no drug has been shown to be effective against the tumor.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)