Don't they have enough of me yet?

Well that was it for radiation. Saskia has done amazingly well. She is not too tired, still jumps around and is overly happy that she completed this major milestone yesterday without too many difficulties. Her throat hearts a little and the skin of her neck is very dark, she is a little tired, but that's all there is to it. She felt so good, she even went to school today. Well done to her.

The next stage is a little unsure. What we do know is that she will have to undergo a range of scans and tests over the next couple of weeks to determine what the effect of the last part of her treatment has been. If these results fall in line with the expectation, which is no evidence of disease left, she will follow a maintenance treatment.
The standard maintenance treatment involves the usage of a form of vitamin A, which is designed to suppress the further development or growth of any cancer cell left in her body. As we know, even if the scans show that there is no further evidence of disease, this does not mean that it is not there. It just means that the particles are too small to be detected by modern technology.
This vitamin A treatment has been moderately successful. There have been many cases of relapse, despite this vitamin A treatment. There is a new treatment on the market, which in Australia is still under trial. During the trials in America it has shown great potential and a great jump in the rate of success. This is an antibody treatment, which in layman's terms is a form of immunisation.
A special designed antibody is injected into the patient. This antibody wraps itself around any left-over neuroblastoma cell and then signals the immune system to get rid of it. To boost the immune system, the patient will also receive a boost to grow more white blood cells and another boost to increase the working of those white blood cells. This whole treatment is done together with the vitamin A treatment.
The only issue is that this antibody does not just wrap itself around the neuroblastoma cells, it also wraps itself around the nerve tissue. And although it does not do any harm to that tissue, it does signal the brain that there is pain. Apparently so much that the patient need to be on constant pain relief during the treatment.
There are 6 treatments over 6 months. Each treatment is given in hospital and will take anywhere up to 10 days in hospital, while on morphine and other type of pain killers.
Saskia was obviously devastated to hear that she will still have to be in hospital for so long. She shouted out with big eyes and open hands: OOOHHH DON'T THEY HAVE ENOUGH OF ME YET?!!?
But she also knows very well that this is the only way to be relatively sure that the cancer will not return.

In case the scans show that there is still some cancer left, then she will still get the maintenance treatment, but then combined with potentially some radiation or an MIBG treatment. As you know one of the scans is an MIBG scan, which identifies neuroblastoma. The MIBG treatment means that a higher dosis of MIBG is given, which potentially kills off neuroblastoma.

However we do not want to think too far ahead. For now we will enjoy Saskia's relative good health and good spirits before we continue on this journey.