Girl incurable brain tumour
On June, 11-year-old Roxli Doss was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG) that doctors feared would take her life. But just a few months later, it completely disappeared, leaving the Texas girl’s medical team baffled.
It is a type of cancerous brain tumor that forms in the part of the brainstem responsible for many vital functions, such as breathing and heart rate. It’s extremely aggressive, and its location makes surgery to try to remove it impossible, according to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Massachusetts.
“It is very rare, but when we see it, it is a devastating disease,”
Virginia Harrod, MD, co-chief of pediatric neuro-oncology at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas
Dr. Harrod is one of Doss’ doctors. “You have decreased ability to swallow, sometimes vision loss, decreased ability to talk, eventually difficulty with breathing.”
There’s no cure for DIPG, but Doss went through weeks of radiation to try to combat the tumor. Her family held a benefit for her in August, and much of their community came out to show support.
Roxli Doss’ parents, Gena and Scott, were praying for a miracle. And they got it.
Dr. Harrod said the tumor is now completely undetectable. “When I first saw Roxli’s MRI scan, it was actually unbelievable… The tumor is undetectable on the MRI scan, which is really unusual.”
Doctors have double-checked Doss’ scan results, but for now, they don’t have an explanation as to how or why the tumor disappeared.
Costas Hadjipanayis, MD, director of neurosurgical oncology at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, tells Health it’s very uncommon for such a DIPG tumor to disappear so quickly.
Dr. Hadjipanayis (external to the case) says it’s equally uncommon for absolutely no trace of the tumor to be seen on an MRI scan. Usually when a tumor like this begins showing improvement doctors are still able to see traces of it. But there was nothing at all left.
Doss’ parents, KVUE that they received multiple medical opinions, all of which came back to DIPG. “At Dell Children’s, Texas Children’s, at Dana-Farber, at John Hopkins, and MD Anderson, all agreed it was DIPG,” Scott (the father) said.
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