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Keeping Terry's dream alive

Seeing children suffering with cancer when he was being treated himself broke Terry Fox's heart and inspired his Marathon of Hope.

Now, those efforts have fuelled a unique initiative to give kids and young adults across the country a chance to live when there are few, if any, treatment options left.

Eight-year-old Marlow Ploughman of Shannonville, Ont., has relapsed four times and is on a new drug thanks to genetic testing involving a project that brings together collaborators from over 30 pediatric cancer research and funding organizations.

The girl was diagnosed at age 2 1/2 with late-stage rhabdomyosarcoma, or cancer of the soft tissue, such as muscle, after a vine-like tumour was found in her calf, said her mother Tanya Boehm.

After three rounds of radiation, chemotherapy protocols and at least four clinical trials, there were no therapies left to try as the cancer spread to the girl's neck and lungs.

A program called Terry Fox PROFYLE, short for Precision Oncology for Young People, seemed to be the only hope for Marlow, Boehm said.

PROFYLE provides precision treatment by sequencing tumour samples on a molecular level and analyzing the vast amount of information at any of three labs in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal for patients up to age 29, regardless of where in Canada they live.

Until now, young cancer patients in rural or remote areas did not always get the testing available, let alone the collaboration of scientists and researchers from across the country to guide treatment.

"It presents options and time," Boehm said. "We were told with Marlow when the cancer came back the first time that she was going to die. ... I think it's fantastic that finally, families like ours have hope."

About 40 people are participating in the study and about half of them have had their tumours sequenced because of the partnership that has so far provided $16.4 million, including $5 million from the Terry Fox Research Institute.



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