Ashley is a very happy and cheeky little boy. At the age of just 5 years he was diagnosed with stage 4 mycn amplified neuroblastoma on the 9th June 2008. Neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer. The disease is caused by abnormal neuroblasts or nerve cells which are special cells present in babies and children that help create the adult nervous system. Tumours originate from the sympathetic nervous system, which runs from the neck to the tailbone and can spread to other organs, bones and the bone marrow. If the cancer is diagnosed early, surgery and chemotherapy can be curative, but in 70% of cases the disease is not diagnosed until it has already widely spread, unfortunately this was the situation with Ashleys case. Upon diagnosis Ashley had a 12- 10 - 8 cm tumour above his left kidney and wide spread disease to the bone marrow in both legs, hips, shoulders and 1 arm. Ashleys little body started an incredibly hard battle to rid the neuroblastoma in it, Ashley under went 70 days of chemotherapy called RAPID COJEC a mixture of Vincristine, Carboplatin, Etoposide, Cisplatin and Cyclophosphamide. The neuroblastoma did respond, halving the size of the mass and clearing 95% of the bone marrow, but unfortunately there were still 4 small hot spots that were visible on scans. Ashley then went on the have 4 rounds of a harsher mix of chemotherapy called TVD (Topotecane, Vincristine and Doxorubicin). This helped clear some of the secondary cancers that were in wide spread ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSBS3xggCRw&hl=en
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