CALGARY – Every day, 10 year old Michael Andrews wears two little hearing aids to school. An FM transmitter helps him hear his teacher over the hum of his classmates
“I hear the voice directly into my hearing aide,” Michael explains, “and I don’t hear everyone else talking.”
At the age of 2, Michael was diagnosed with stage 4, neuroblastoma. Cancer, that was treated with a series of powerful chemotherapy drugs.
“The one side effect that he has suffered was from Ciplastin,” Michael’s mother, Lisa Colford recalls. “It’s caused a high pitch hearing loss.”
Michael’s doctors had warned his family about a number of potential side effects related to the cancer treatments. Many children who survive cancer or other serious illness go on to deal with other health problems as a result of their medication.
“We know that’s a major problem,” Dr. David Johnson, a pediatrician with the Alberta Children’s Hospital research institute explains. “There are many kids who have bad outcomes, bad side effects, even though the drugs are essential for making them better and keeping their disease controlled.”
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That’s why a team of physicians across Canada have come together for a major national study. Doctors and scientists at the University of British Columbia are leading the study that has researchers trying to determine if genetic variations make some children more susceptible to side effects.
“We know certainly a number of adverse effects are related to underlying genes, “ Dr. Johnson says, “ the question is – for the range of different side effects – to discover how that works.”
With Michael’s help, researchers have been able to identify genes responsible for his hearing loss, now they’re working to understand why the chemotherapy drug, Cisplastin made that hearing loss happen.
“Once you have all those details, you can find out what you need to do the drug in order to have it now cause side effects”, Dr. Johnson explains.
Michael’s mom says the research giver her hope for other families who may face cancer in the future, “Maybe then they’ll come out side effect free,” she says with a smile, “that would be fantastic.”
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