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“One-in-a-million” shot at saving daughter: Father
Friday August 29 2008
By RICHARD VIVIAN Banner Staff Writer
 
It was the only decision they could make. The parents of a four-year-old Orangeville girl say they jumped at a long-shot chance to save their daughter and signed her up for an experimental brain tumour treatment.
Kathryn Wymant was diagnosed with a high-grade glioma while on a family vacation to Scotland. The cancer is wrapped around her brain stem, making it difficult to treat, and doctors said she wasn’t well enough to fly home.
As a result, the family — three children and two parents — remain in Great Britain, where treatment is underway at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
“The traditional way of dealing with this type of cancer ... has not proved effective,” her father, Laurence Wymant, tells The Banner, referring to radiation therapy. “Given the opportunity to take a one-in-a-million chance on her, we took it.”
That chance is a clinic trial currently underway in Scotland. The girl receives radiation therapy every morning, followed by chemotherapy each night — administered by her father.
Health Canada has not approved the chemotherapy drug Kathryn is receiving, Temozolomide (also known as Temodal and Temolozide), for general use in children with her particular type of brain cancer.
“The only treatment currently available for that particular kind of tumour, in that location, is radiation therapy,” says Janet Gammon, clinical research nurse co-ordinator at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“(Temozolomide) is often used to treat children with different kinds of brain tumours,” she adds. “It is a drug that is used in the adult world to treat different kinds of brain tumours, but brain tumours in adults are very different than brain tumours in children.
“Just because something is successful to treat an adult cancer does not necessarily mean it will be successful in treating a child’s cancer.”
A similar clinical trial was conducted at the Toronto hospital “several” years ago, Gammon says, noting she’s unable to disclose the results. However, she says the objective of that trial was to prolong the life of children with brain cancer.
“That particular tumour is a very bad tumour,” she says. “Currently, the long-term survival rate is almost zero ... in a child.”
Even with the trial chemotherapy, Laurence acknowledges his daughter’s prognosis is poor. But that isn’t going to stop the family from trying whatever they can.
“We’ve been told this is a high frequency for reoccurrence. They told us about four to six months for reoccurrence,” he says. “Right now it’s a wait-and-see and let the radiology do its thing and see how this chemo drug does as well.”
The Orangeville girl’s treatment wraps up next month — her family won’t know how well it’s working until then.
“She hasn’t had any problems really,” Laurence says of his daughter’s reaction to the treatments. “She’s just her usual self. We haven’t had any really nasty side effects that we were given the heads-up to anticipate in the upcoming weeks.”
It’s not known what options exist when Kathryn’s current round of treatment is over. As a result, the family has no idea when they’ll be returning to the comfort of their home.
“There’s conversations going on in the background, I think, between the Sick Kids in Toronto and the Sick Kids here,” Laurence says.
“If we come back to Toronto, and Katy’s well enough, we’re not going to have any real treatments available. But at the same time, we want to make sure that we’re not giving her the same thing as a Tic Tac,” he adds, explaining they need to know the treatment is working.
“We’re waiting on a position from our physician here on where they stand” with the treatment and whether it will be of assistance, Laurence continues.
Gammon says it’s not completely out of  the question that someone with Kathryn’s condition could receive chemotherapy in Canada.
“You can’t just go out and buy it, but it is available through a special access program,” she says, explaining physicians can apply to the Ministry of Health for special permission to treat children with certain types of brain tumours with that drug.
“That treatment has been given here.”