A 13-Year-Old Has Been Cured of DIPG, the Deadliest Childhood Brain Cancer
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- For the first time in medical history, a 13-year-old boy named Lucas Jemeljanova from Belgium has been completely cured of DIPG, the deadliest childhood brain cancer.
- Lucas was diagnosed at age six and participated in the French clinical trial BIOMEDE, where he was randomly assigned the drug everolimus, which targets the mTOR protein.
- His tumor completely disappeared on MRI scans, and he has remained cancer-free even after stopping medication on his own.
- Out of 233 patients in the trial, only Lucas achieved complete remission; his exceptional response is attributed to an extremely rare mutation in his tumor cells that made them unusually sensitive to everolimus.
- The BIOMEDE trial used molecular biopsy to assign personalized treatment, highlighting the value of personalized medicine and molecular profiling in treating DIPG.
- A follow-up trial (BIOMEDE 2.0) focuses on everolimus, and other immunotherapy trials have also shown promise with tumor shrinkage in multiple patients.