Initial Diagnosis

(The following information is posted to help raise awareness of pediatric cancer and to help other parents going through this nightmare.  We are stronger together than apart.)

.  My daughter Aly was diagnosed with Nephroblastoma (Wilm’s Tumor) , which is a type of kidney cancer in Febuary of 2019.  Before this moment, I thanked God everyday for my three healthy triplets.

Aly showed no outward signs or symptoms of the tumor that was growing on her left kidney.  We only noticed something was wrong when my husband asked me to look at her belly one day.

You could feel a large solid mass on the left side of her belly.  

We quickly got het to our pediatrician and shortly had an xray and an ultrasound showing a large tumor on her left kidney displacing her bowel completely to the right side of her abdomen.

We eventually ended up at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a plan came together for removal of the tumor and kidney.

In surgery, Aly had a port placed in her chest for chemotherapy and her left kidney removed.  

We soon learned that she was staged as a Stage 4 with favorable histology.  She had no tumor invasion of the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC), which can happen.

As Aly recovered from surgery we decided on a chemotherapy plan to treat the tumor bed, lungs and liver.  (An additional CT and MRI had revealed metastasis to her lungs and liver.)

We began our chemotherapy in Cincinnatti on Regimen MVI which adds Irenotecan to the prior Children’s Oncology Group gold standard called Regimen M.  

Our tumor genetics showed loss of 16q and trisomy 12 which are recurrent chromosomal abnormalities in Wilms.