TALIA'S STORY
 Talia Cohen was 14 and a half years old and in 8th
grade at Hommocks when she was diagnosed with Stage
IV Unfavorable Wilms Tumor in March 2001. Talia’s
primary kidney tumor was successfully removed, but
the cancer had spread to her lungs. Talia immediately
began aggressive chemotherapy treatment and radiation
to try to shrink and kill the cancer remaining in
her body.
Talia suffered terrible side effects from
these treatments: hair loss, nausea, pain, weight
loss. She spent many weeks in the hospital because
of fevers and infections. Unfortunately, the cancer
did not respond to the treatments, and it began to
grow.
Since conventional treatments were clearly
not going to save her, Talia’s family desperately
searched for new and experimental ways to attack
cancer. Talia underwent a stem-cell transplant with
her brother Danny’s stem cells, which meant
3 weeks of isolation in the hospital. It was hoped
that his healthy immune system would attack the cancer,
but this also failed. Talia then tried experimental
medications that are only in the very beginning stages
of clinical trials in humans, but by that time, it
was too late. The lung metastases were too large,
preventing Talia from breathing.
Talia died on November
30, 2002. She had just turned 16, and was a sophomore
at Mamaroneck High School. She had fought her cancer
with incredible courage, continuing to go to school
whenever she felt good. All she wanted was to live
a normal life, going to school, enjoying movies
and music, being a stage manager for the Semi-Royal
Shakespeare
Company. Talia never gave up the fight, and rarely
complained about her terrible fate.
Wilms tumor is the most common kidney cancer diagnosed
in children and adolescents, with about 550 cases diagnosed
in the United States each year. Although the majority
of children with Wilms tumor are cured, there remains
a group of patients in whom the cancer is very aggressive
and resistant to treatment. These are the children,
like Talia, who have the unfavorable type of Wilms
tumor. There are about 35-40 cases of unfavorable Wilms
diagnosed each year, of which only about 10 are adolescents.
New and novel therapies are clearly needed if we are
to cure these patients. However, the rarity of this
aggressive and deadly cancer means that very little
money is being spent on research for a cure.
Talia's oncologist, Dr. Darrell Yamashiro, directs
a laboratory at Columbia University at the Children’s
Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, where he is searching
for a cure for unfavorable Wilms tumor. Dr. Yamashiro
and his colleagues are experimenting with various types
of treatments on animals with Wilms Tumor. Once a treatment
has shown to have a positive effect on tumors in animals,
the treatment can be tested on humans in a clinical
trial.
This research is vitally important for those children
who will develop unfavorable Wilms Tumor. Unfortunately,
it was too late for Talia, since progress in research
is slow. Teenagers like Talia should not be dying of
unfavorable Wilms Tumor. But so little is known about
how to control this rare cancer.
Enormous sums have been spent on research for common
cancers like leukemia, breast cancer and prostate cancer,
because the large numbers of patients make it profitable
for pharmaceutical firms to devote resources to these
diseases. Only a handful of doctors worldwide are devoting
their energy to finding a cure for unfavorable Wilms
Tumor. By contributing to Dr. Yamashiro's work in unfavorable
Wilms Tumor research, you can make a difference to
the future of other children who will develop this
terrible disease.
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