Our son Rodrigo is a 16-year-old boy under care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) for metastatic variant fusion-positive (EWSR1-ERG fusion) Ewing’s sarcoma of the cervical s pine with 20 bilateral lung metastases, an extremely pediatric rare cancer. He was originally diagnosed with cancer in January 2020 in Mexico City, Mexico. However, the local hospital was ill-equipped to properly diagnose his specific type of tumor, let alone properly treat his rare disease, so Rodrigo’s care was transferred to MSK.
MSK offers Rodrigo his best chance of survival, Rodrigo is a minor child, so his parents must be stay with him to provide. It is unsafe for Rodrigo to travel during treatment, particularly considering the COVID-19 pandemic. Any infection has the risk of severe complications, including hospitalization. Rodrigo is not medically cleared to travel back to Mexico during treatment.
Treatment consists of chemotherapy and radiation, and will last through approximately May of 2021. With consistent treatment, Rodrigo has a fair prognosis for survival.
The hospital MSK is located in one of the most expensive cities in the world that is why it is very difficult for us to cover all the expenses. We need money to pay for family support rent, food, travel, and other expenses we need to incurr in to provide a dignified and clean place to live, in the city where our son has been treated for te past 8 months as well as money to bring hole family together.
In New York City, Rodrigo finished the initial protocol of chemotherapy and radiation to the neck that eliminated the "mother" tumor and most of the metastases.
We started the second chemotherapy protocol 2 months ago. This second chemotherapy protocol, in addition to seeking to eliminate the metastases that are in the left lung. It is developed to increase the chances that Rodrigo will not develop cells of this Cancer again. This increases the possibility of NO DEVELOPMENT OF CANCER CELLS in the future by 75%.
We have already managed to move the treatment to Colorado and finally the whole family is together, being here helps financially, since we no longer have the expense of renting the apartment and the car in NYC.
Rodrigo's principal doctor is still in NYC and every 3 months we must travel to have major review studies performed to determine progress.
After Rodrigo's visit in October to New York, the progress report is good, the lungs did not need yet to be operated but there is still the possibility that the operation is required. The 2 nodules in the lungs continue to reduce their size and are already 1mm and 3mm. The treatment will continue here in Colorado until mid-January, when we will have to return to New York for the next 2 treatments, to be prepared for radiation and the possible operation to remove the nodules from the lungs. We still don't know if we will have to be there for 2 to 3 months or we will be able to travel back and forth from Colorado.
On the other hand, although very scarce, we finally started to receive some resources from my work in Mexico but we still need your support to get to the end of this. Please, those who can support us with whatever you can, you have no idea on how important it will be for us to be able to get thru this.
Forever thankful
