This weekend is the very last straight line of this 34th edition of Télévie, in aid of cancer research. If we appeal to your generosity, it is to better fight cancer and help the sick. This is the case of Jonathan. At 16, he is battling a rare form of lymphoma. Chemotherapy had no effect on him. He is now treated with what is called ‘targeted therapy’.
Two and a half years ago. Jonathan learns that he has type B anaplastic large cell lymphoma. A disease with a barbaric name for the then 14-year-old teenager. “I was at the hospital. I had started my first chemo. I was just told it was lymphoma, but I didn’t know it was cancer. It’s my best friend who tells me it’s cancer. I say : ‘Mamanis it cancer?‘. And then I found out.“
I was completely knackered in my bed
Unfortunately, multiple courses of chemotherapy are not enough. The disease recurred several times. Jonathan’s condition worsens and he is then plunged into a coma for several days. His return home is particularly complicated. “I was completely exhausted in my bed. Sometimes I had trouble eating. It’s a bit like I had a memory lapse. My brain started ‘off’ so much it was ‘hard’.“
A treatment in the form of capsules
In the impasse, the doctors offer him a new therapeutic weapon. Targeted therapy. A treatment that the young man supports well and which allows him to live normally. “It’s just 4 capsules in the morning and 4 capsules in the evening.“, details Jonathan. But if he is doing well, targeted therapy can cause side effects. Jonathan is regularly monitored at the Cliniques Universitaires de Saint-Luc. Ris drugs in targeted therapy aim to educate cells to prevent them from malfunctioning. A treatment that Jonathan can take for two years.
Jonathan’s mom: “Every day, I say thank you to the doctors who are in search. Every day, I think regarding it and tell myself that if he would have had this disease 5 years ago, he wouldn’t be here anymore.“
With chemotherapy, we generally have excellent results in childhood cancers
The young man will have to interrupt his treatment next summer. The doctor Bricardhead of the pediatric oncology department at Saint-Luc, hopes that targeted therapy will be sufficient. Le Jonathan’s lymphoma is rare, even more so in children and adolescents. “These are therapies that we don’t yet use a lot in pediatrics. With chemotherapy, we generally have excellent results in childhood cancers.“ Added to this is a poor knowledge of the toxicities of drugs.
Apart from follow-up exams, Jonathan continues to live his life as normal. He says he has full confidence in the medical profession.
