As of: February 25, 2024, 11:48 a.m
By: Robin Dittrich, Kilian Bäuml
Comments
Press
Split
A medical miracle has occurred in Belgium.
A 13-year-old boy has survived a brain tumor that was considered incurable.
Munich – Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) are a type of brain tumor that mainly affects children.
Seven years ago, the then six-year-old Lucas from Belgium was diagnosed with this.
Now, seven years later, he is fortunately healed.
This particular type of brain tumor is one of the deadliest cancers in the world and is usually incurable.
According to the Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, hundreds of children in Europe develop DIPG every year.
The average life expectancy after diagnosis is only nine to 15 months.
Only two percent of patients survive longer than five years; a cure was not yet known.
13-year-old Lucas is considered the only person in the world to have defeated a particularly aggressive brain tumor.
© Screenshot/Facebook
Medical miracle: Boy survives deadliest brain tumor
However, Lucas, now 13, could change the prospects for recovery in the future.
When he was six years old, doctors predicted he had little chance of survival.
But then he was treated with the drug everolimus.
This treatment has never been successful for DIPG, but for Lucas there was a surprising turnaround.
The tumor began to shrink and seven years later it is no longer detectable.
A woman from Germany even had a 32-pound tumor removed.
The tumor was discovered when Lucas felt unwell during a holiday, as reported by
mirror.co.uk
, among others.
After he lost consciousness, doctors diagnosed him with cancer.
Jacques Grill, the boy's treating doctor from the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Paris, had to tell Lucas's parents at the start of treatment that their son would die of cancer.
The drug everolimus used in the treatment was intended to block mTOR, a protein involved in the division and growth of cancer cells.
Miracle cure: 13-year-old defeats deadliest cancer
Jacques Grill, the treating doctor, was enthusiastic about the tumor's positive development: "Through a series of MRI scans, I was able to watch the tumor disappear completely," he told
AFP
.
He added: “I don’t know of any other case like this in the world.” Now we will investigate why Lucas was able to be cured through the therapy.
Other children also responded to the therapy, but only Lucas' tumor completely disappeared.
Scientists are now trying to evaluate all the data for future successful therapy.
Many things can cause cancer, but as researchers recently discovered, some types of fungi may be able to prevent cell mutations.
(kiba/rodi/AFP)
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked.
Find out more about our AI principles here.