Isla Caton Neuroblastoma Health Condition: Isla’s Story – Cost of Treatment, Age & Death News and Obituary On Twitter

Isla Caton Neuroblastoma Health Condition: “Isla died in the early hours of Tuesday, January 25th, at the age of seven, five years after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood disease.”

Everyone at the club sends their heartfelt condolences to Isla’s parents, Nicola and Michael, as well as her extended family and friends, during this difficult time.”

Isla Caton Neuroblastoma Health Condition: Isla’s Story

This week, I spoke with Michael Hook, the father of three-year-old daughter Isla Caton, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma earlier this year, the same condition that child football fan Bradley Lowery suffered from.

Neuroblastoma is a rare and extremely dangerous type of pediatric cancer that originates in nerve cells left over from a baby’s womb development. Every year, over a hundred children in the United Kingdom are diagnosed with the disease, many of them are under the age of five.

Michael recounted the harrowing events of his family’s past year, including his daughter’s first battle to receive an accurate diagnosis. When Isla was two years old, her parents observed that she was becoming drowsy and disengaged. Doctors first diagnosed her with an iron shortage after a visit to the GP and Queen’s A&E.

Michael and his wife sought a second opinion after Isla lost a significant amount of weight and acquired a swollen stomach, and a mass was discovered in her stomach. Doctors eventually diagnosed Isla with Stage 4 neuroblastoma and gave her a 40% chance of surviving.

Neuroblastoma Notoriously Difficult To Detect

Isla’s three-month wait for a diagnosis is unfortunately not uncommon. However, Michael explained that a simple urine test could have detected a protein associated with neuroblastoma, something that many hospitals do not carry out due to the difficulties of obtaining samples from small children.

While Great Ormond Street Hospital tests samples from nappies, other hospitals fear sample contamination from this method.

Meanwhile, in Japan, all babies are tested for neuroblastoma at birth, and I offered to raise the issue of diagnostic procedures for Michael with the Department of Health.

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— Isla Caton (@islasfight) January 19, 2022

He went on to explain that neuroblastoma is cancer that can spread very rapidly, feeding off blood vessels and adrenal glands. Isla’s cancer began in her tummy but spread to her bones and the cavity in her head between her brain and skull. The family was shocked by cancer’s rapid development and the fact that many of the treatment options available for childhood cancers are based on old medicines – Isla’s chemotherapy treatment is based on a mustard gas derivative discovered in 1967. I have offered to ask questions on the research monies available to childhood cancers to secure new treatment methods.

Isla Caton Was Put On An N7 Trial.

Highly unusually, the five sessions of chemotherapy that she undertook did not make her sick and shrunk cancer’s growth back to the size of a fist in her stomach, clearing it completely from her bones. Nonetheless, it had attached itself to her kidney and the next stage of treatment involved taking stem cells by dialysis to ensure that she could survive the chemo necessary after an operation to clear the tumour from her kidney.

Miraculously, doctors managed to save Isla’s kidney during the operation and removed 95% of the tumour. Chemotherapy remains necessary to blast the final five per cent and Isla is about to undergo this treatment, which requires going under general anaesthetic daily for six weeks.

Two Types of Radiotherapy Treatment For Isla Caton

There are two types of radiotherapy for this stage of treatment – standard and proton, the latter of which has far fewer side effects. Nonetheless, Isla cannot receive proton therapy in the UK as the machine is still being built at UCH.

Medics in the US use proton radiotherapy as a matter of course because it is safer and the NHS in England is prepared to send people there for treatment as they recognise the advantages but the NHS does not necessarily recognise the benefits for neuroblastoma patients. I shall be asking questions about the availability of this treatment to the health ministerial team.

Michael also explained the daily costs that families like his must meet to make the daily trips to Great Ormond Street.

Not only do families need flexibility from their employers but they often need to pay for parking, stay in hotels and eat takeaway meals while away from home during a child’s treatment. Meanwhile, in Queen’s Hospital, there is no wifi or television in children’s wards beyond the unreliable and slow paid-for options.

After the radiotherapy, Isla then needs immunotherapy which requires her to be in hospital for two weeks on, two weeks on, over a period of six months. Immunotherapy trains the patient’s cells to attack cancer cells. Isla will then be scanned every three months for at least ten years.

Radiotherapy and immunotherapy are vitally important maintenance treatments as there is a fifty percent chance of neuroblastoma returning once it has been removed.

The Sloane Memorial Kettering Hospital in Manhattan specializes in the treatment of neuroblastoma and their three-year trials have been very successful in keeping children cancer-free. Isla’s family wants her to receive further treatment in America and are raising funds so that she can receive the Bivalent vaccine, an antibody therapy not currently available in England.

Isla Caton Cost of Treatment

The cost of immunotherapy treatment for a child with neuroblastoma is £1million but the costs can be driven down through deals with charities and the family is now seeking to raise £200 000 to get Isla to the SMK Hospital.

They have been in contact with the Bradley Lowery Foundation, which had raised £1.5 million before Bradley sadly died earlier this year. Isla is now under Bradley’s banner and any money her family obtains goes to the charity, but is held exclusively for her treatment for twenty-five years in case of reoccurrence.

So far the Hooks have raised £80 000 towards getting Isla treated in the USA. They are also now closely involved with the global neuroblastoma community, which sees families supporting one another and sharing information about best practice in treating this vicious disease.

Work in this regard includes participating in the IBM Community Grid, which allows people to link their computers into a broader network, giving greater computing capacity to the cancer research community in working out algorithms and equations.

Isla Caton Death News and Obituary On Twitter

Isla is now being given a sixty percent chance of survival and with treatment in the USA, her chances of survival could increase by five percent. I am supporting the family by pressing the health ministerial team on specific issues raised by her case and sharing information about the family’s fundraising efforts.

They are West Ham fans and can be seen collecting for Isla after matches. They are also running a ‘Skip a Coffee’ day which encourages people to put their daily coffee money towards Isla’s treatment.

Last Updated on January 25, 2022 by 247 News Around The World