Drug provides early hope for some child cancers - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

A new drug is bringing some hope to children with cancer. The treatment worked for one young boy when nothing else would.

"We didn't know if he was gonna make it," said Pam Witt.

Pam and John Witt called their four older children home to say goodbye to their youngest, Zach. A relapse of the cancer lymphoma was overwhelming his little body. His parents feared the unspeakable.

"We just didn't know what was going to happen," said Pam.

Doctors offered more aggressive chemotherapy, but Zach remembers how sick it made him.

"I was moving all around because I was so scared that I was dying. I went home and I had to lie on the sofa like all day long because I was so dizzy," he said.

Instead, the Witts chose to take part in a trial of the oral medication Crizotinib. It works by turning off the abnormal ALK gene which fuels some cancers but leaves healthy tissue unharmed.

The dark areas in a scan of a child in the study are cancer. Another scan shows 28 days after treatment, and most of the cancer is simply gone.

"I think it's finally understanding what drives a cancer what cancer is actually addicted to for its growth and for its survival," said Dr. Yael Mosse, pediatric oncologist.

Dr. Mosse and her team discovered that ALK is present in some childhood lymphomas and neuroblastomas, the cancer that took the life of Alex Scott, whose lemonade foundation funded some of the science behind the discovery.

Zach started improving after just two days.

"It's like wow! Our boy is bouncing back," said John Witt.

Two-year-old Edie Gilger wasn't expected to survive an advanced case of neuroblastoma but she is now cancer free after taking the drug for six months. The Witts say even if doctors aren't ready to call Zach cured, they feel blessed that his deadly cancer is in check.

"We just feel humbled and very thankful," said Zach's father.