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Abbie
Abbie & her brother Jamie
Abbie – June 2006 |
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June 2007 ABBIE'S FUND – “Make
my childhood cancer survivable” One of Abbie’s Funds key objectives is to
raise funds to support research into making Neuroblastoma survivable. Whilst Neuroblastoma is a relatively rare
childhood cancer it is also one of the most aggressive resulting in very poor
long term survival. Neuroblastoma is hard to treat successfully for many
reasons but three of the key factors are:- §
Detection - techniques are relatively primitive making the
presence of the disease hard to detect especially at low, (but still lethal),
levels. §
Minimal residual disease – the presence of just a few rogue
cancer cells can be enough to ultimately cause a terminal relapse. The
limited detection techniques make it impossible to determine whether small
numbers of cancerous cells are still present post treatment. Drugs targeted
at ‘mopping up’ residual disease themselves have unpleasant side effects and
therefore can only be used for a limited period of time. There is currently
no ‘daily pill to pop’ with minimal side effects that can deal with these
rogue cells to make Neuroblastoma liveable with in the longer term. §
Multi-drug resistance – over time the cancer cells evolve into
ones more resistant to the treatments and therefore the ability of chemotherapy
and other drugs to eradicate these cells diminishes over time. The combined effect of these three factors is
that children often end up in ‘perceived remission’ but with a undetectable
time-bomb of the most aggressive and drug-resistant cancer cells still
present within their bodies. This leads to the sad but inevitable relapse and
virtually guaranteed death. Abbie’s Fund is therefore looking to fund
projects specifically relating to these three key issues. We are realistic
enough to recognise the enormity of the task ahead and therefore have set
‘survivability’ as our goal rather than ‘cure’. Whilst Neuroblastoma is newly diagnosed in
only 80 children a year in the UK, the aggressiveness of the disease and the
difficulty to treat it successfully means that any research would also
inevitably lead to a better understanding and ability to treat more common
and less aggressive cancers. If we can conquer a hard cancer like
Neuroblastoma then cures for many others should fall into place.
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