Wednesday February 22 , 2012
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As most of you know, Ty was diagnosed in May 2008 with stage 4 neuroblastoma. He was only 16 months old at the time and has since endured seven rounds of high dose chemotherapy, an Autogolous Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant, 27 rounds of radiation and had surgery to have his tumor removed. In addition, he has countless blood and platelet transfusions, countless MIBG,CT, and x-rays, as well numerous bone marrow aspirates and biopsies.

Ty is our little fighter and has never shown any signs of slowing down, even throughout this entire ordeal. He is so strong and continues to "power through it" with a smile on his face. We are blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and active little boy and know he will beat this cancer!

Ty is now 3 years old and has been receiving his treatment through Stanford hospital in Palo Alto, California but due to the clinical study closing, we are now flying coast to coast, from California to New York to receive the 3F8 antibody treatment at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

As of April 7,2010, Ty is officially "no evidence of disease" and will finish the 3F8 protocol in March 2011. Please keep him in your prayers so he can remain healthy and happy!

  • Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer of the sympathetic nervous system, affecting approximately 650 children in the U.S. every year.  It is the second most common solid tumor in infants.
  • Most children are diagnosed by 2.5 years of age.  Up to sixty percent of them have high risk disease that has metastasized (spread to other parts of the body) by the time they are diagnosed. Survival is dependent on age and disease stage: children diagnosed before the age of 18 months have a high survival rate, but high risk children ( stage 4) diagnosed before age 5 have about a 30 percent chance of growing up.
  • Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor cancer that originates in the nerve tissue of the neck, chest, abdomen or pelvis, but most commonly in the adrenal gland.
  • One problem all childhood cancer patients face is the lack of money for research. Most drugs used on children today were developed for adults 20 to 30 years ago.
  • Only 1.85% of the American Cancer Society’s research money goes toward all 12 types of pediatric cancer? (*July 2005, Research Department, American Cancer Society, Inc.)
  • The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3% .
  • Neuroblastoma has one of the lowest survival rates of all pediatric cancers. Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.