At age 5, our son, Dylan, had a malignant brain tumor removed in late July 2007 at Cedars Sinai Medical Hospital, and received chemo at Children's Hospital Los Angeles until late February 2008.

 

The type of tumor is medulloblastoma, with a subtype of "anaplastic."

 

This type of tumor is not hereditary, does not run in families, was not caused by anything we did in pregnancy or any time thereafter, and is not contagious. In the words of our oncologist, it was just "lousy luck."

 

Doctors have pointed to pollution as a possible cause (Los Angeles is the most polluted city in the country), and to sugar as well as cell phone/wireless/microwave radiation as possible catalysts to help the cancerous growth.

 

The anaplastic subtype is bad news: it is more aggressive in nature and has a lower survival rate.

 

While checkpoint MRIs and spinal taps in October 2007, January, March, July and October 2008 were clean, a scan in January 2009 showed masses growing in Dylan's spine.

A biopsy showed it to be a recurrence of the same kind of cancer, showing up as Leptomeningeal Disease.

 

He had two months of chemo and then six weeks of radiation that, because of complications, extended through mid-June 2009.

 

The next step is a trip to New York City for experimental, antibody treatment at Sloan Kettering. We have to travel, because that's the only place to get this treatment in the country. This will last for the full month of August 2009.

 

See the links to the left for more information, updates and photos of our journey.

 

You can also add us on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, if you use any of those social networks.

 

 

 

Formerly superdylansite.com, this site was built, migrated and is maintained by Dylan's dad, Eric David