One of those is DIPG, letters that Elijah’s parents heard for the first time with his diagnosis. Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma is a doubly devastating tumor: Not only is it in­trac­table, infiltrating the brain stem in a way that makes surgery impossible, but it affects only young children. Elijah gets serenaded over dinner by family friend Becky Taurog and his parents, Brad Simpson and Kristin Sundell. The boy rebounded, and in September his neuro-oncologist at Children’s, Lindsay Kilburn, put him on panobinostat, a drug that has been shown to inhibit DIPG tumor growth in mice. Elijah’s parents turned to family, friends and sympathetic strangers for financial help.

Source: Washington Post February 06, 2017 23:01 UTC