Save children with cancer in Brazil

It is very gratifying to see all the efforts of people and companies that donate to keep our hospital in full operation. It have generated amazing results for patients with highly complex tumors.

More common in children under 5 years old, retinoblastoma is a malignant eye tumor which represents 10% of the cases treated in GRAACC’s Hospital. The healing chances have exceeded 90%.

Gabriel, 3, was diagnosed early with retinoblastoma in the right eye at 11 months of life. There were no symptoms, in addition to leukocoria, known as “cat eye shine” - white reflection in the pupil. Taken to hospital, Gabriel underwent fundus examination and forwarded immediately to GRAACC to receive proper treatment.

"Every child that present white reflection in the pupils, generally perceived in pictures, strabismus or any other ocular abnormality signal should be checked by an ophthalmologist and undergo deep examination with dilated pupils," explains Dr. Carla.

In GRAACC’s Hospital Gabriel passed chemotherapy treatment, which lasted 9 months. According to the mother, at the first session, the tumor was reduced in 60%. After this step, the boy underwent intra-arterial chemotherapy, which was injected by a micro-catheter in the groin. From there, it reaches the ophthalmic artery directly reaching the tumor and preserving other parts of the body and the eyeball.

The mother said that Gabriel responded very well to treatment from the start. "He had common reactions, such as sickness, but had no fever and the hair did not even fall, got only thin" reports. After the period of chemotherapies, Gabriel started deep examinations periodically.

Now, Gabriel plays and develops normally like any other child. "Thanks to early diagnosis, Gabriel went through all the procedures and was not submitted to enucleation. Results like this confirm that early diagnosis due with proper treatment, it is essential for tumor cure with preservation of the eye" says Dr. Luiz Fernando Teixeira, ophthalmologist of GRAACC, responsible for handling Gabriel.

Thank you for helping the children, as well as Gabriel, to have every chance of cure!

The year of 2015 was of great challenges and achievements for GRAAC. Partnerships and collaborative efforts were essential in order to continue the mission to ensure children and adolescents with cancer the right to access all the chances of cure with quality of life within the most advanced scientific standard. 

GRAAC Hospital has become the first specialized centre in paediatric cancer in Latin America having a magnetic resonance machine located in the operating room for the procedure of brain tumours removal.

In the year of 2015 GRAAC also celebrated the 500th Bone Marrow Transplants performed at the hospital. These were some of the results achieved with the support from the community. 

However, there is still a lot to be done. GRAACC searches to fill the management gap of suitable treatment and quality of life in cases of high complexity not being attained in the country, bringing the cure rate up to about 70 %.

Therefore, GRAAC relies on the people and organizations support to generate funds needed to defray the best treatment for children and adolescents with cancer in Brazil