Luke Abbadessa
On September 2, 2014 during a routine checkup, our pediatrician found a mass in my son Luke’s abdomen. We were immediately sent to the hospital, where we would stay for the next four days while having diagnostic testing done. By the end of that stay we learned that Luke, 21 months, had stage 4 neuroblastoma. Not only did he have a large tumor compromising his left kidney, the cancer had also spread to bones all over his tiny body. A friend put us in touch with Dr. Modak at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and in a 20-minute phone conversation he explained more about neuroblastoma than we had learned in four days at our home hospital. We immediately transferred care to MSKCC and began standard treatment. But after the third round of chemotherapy a CT scan showed no improvement, in fact the abdominal tumor had grown. A harsher regimen of chemo (ICE) was immediately administered and that round of treatment put us back on track. On December 18, 2014, just ten days after his second birthday Luke endured an 11-hour surgery to remove the main tumor and unfortunately lost his left kidney in the process. In the new year several combinations of chemotherapy were used to attempt to clear the remaining bone tumors but with no success. We then enrolled him his first clinical trial which also did nothing to clear his stubborn disease. At this point our doctors gave us several clinical trial options. We went home on a Friday and the neuroblastoma team was debating our options while we were frantically researching each available trial. That evening we received a phone call from Dr. Modak saying that a team member had presented another option. They were still debating but we should be aware of this trial and consider it as well. Thanks to Band of Parents, that option was hu3f8. His first treatment cycle began on April 27, 2015 and we were cautiously optimistic. After two rounds we scanned and watched in shock as the new images were uploaded. More than half of Luke’s bone tumors had all but disappeared. Luke stayed on this trial for a year and completed ten rounds of treatment on March 11, 2016. The Band of Parents (BOP) funded Hu3f8 cleared all but two of Luke’s bone tumors and the two that are left have been deemed to be matured benign disease. Luke is currently 3 1/2 years old and thriving. Luke is currently enrolled in the MSKCC neuroblastoma vaccine trial funded by the Band of Parents. Now in preschool, Luke loves swimming and wrestling.
As told by Luke’s mom, Vanessa Forte Abbadessa, 9/2016
