Saving Kids with Science Clinical Trial Helps Girl With
Neuroblastoma Within moments after Desiree Thomas learned that
her young daughter's life was in danger from an advanced form of
common pediatric cancer of nerve tissue called neuroblastoma,
she began to contemplate whether to enroll her child in a
clinical trial. Cancer specialists at the University of Chicago
Medicine Comer Children's Hospital told Thomas that her 3-year-
old daughter, Madison, had less than a 40 percent chance of
being cured of the disease. After treatment with six cycles of
chemotherapy, surgery, myeloablative treatment with stem cell
transplant and radiation therapy, Madison still had evidence of
neuroblastoma in her bone marrow, indicating that standard
therapy had not eradicated the cancer. Thomas decided to enroll
her daughter in a study testing a new treatment strategy with
antibodies that are directed against neuroblastoma cancer cells
combined with cytokines that stimulate the patient's immune
system and a retinoid that induces