Treatment has reduced Megan’s tumour by 75%

A BRAVE little Cork girl with a rare and life-threatening disease has begun specialist treatment in America buoyed by the news that her tumour has reduced by 75%.

Megan Malone, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl from Cill na Martra near Macroom began a four-day course of chemotherapy yesterday.

It has emerged the toddler’s main tumour has reduced by as much as 75%, giving hope to her parents and medics at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital.

Earlier this week, the Megan Malone Trust confirmed that an anonymous “third party donor” had offered to cover the cost of her operations.

Megan flew to the US with her family on December 2 after doctors there told her parents she would need to commence the life-saving treatment within weeks is she is to have any chance of survival.

On arrival in the US, doctors carried out an MRI scan and discovered that Megan’s largest tumour had reduced significantly in size as a result of chemotherapy she received in Ireland. While Megan still has several smaller tumours around her brain and on her spine, doctors say the main tumour has reduced in size by as much as 75%.

Megan’s aunt Bríd Malone confirmed yesterday: “John and Sheila have been told by the doctors that according to the MRI scan, Megan’s main tumour has reduced from 2.4cm to down 0.8cm diameter, a reduction of three-quarters. We have no information yet on the rest of the mini tumours as they (doctors) only had measurements on the before and after state of the main tumour. It is really good news and beyond our wildest dreams that the tumour has reduced in size.”

The Malones were first alerted to a possible problem with Megan when she began to have difficulty walking and was sick a lot. She was taken to Cork University Hospital and had a brain scan on October 13. Megan was then transferred by ambulance to Temple St Hospital in Dublin after the results confirmed a tumour on her brain.

An MRI scan subsequently revealed that not only were there multiple tumours on Megan’s brain but there was also one on her spinal cord. Doctors gave Megan a less than 20% chance of survival while the Malones were also told that radiotherapy in the high doses which would have been required to treat Megan would leave her mentally retarded.

After work colleagues put Megan’s dad in touch with surgeons in US, the Malones were told that treatment there offered a 50/50 chance for Megan and said without the treatment, Megan would live no more than 3 to 4 weeks. The Malones were told to get Megan to the States as soon as possible.

The Malone family is still settling into their temporary new home in an Irish community in the New York suburb of Yonkers. The family has access to the house for as long as they require it while in the US and according to Bríd, have fantastic Irish neighbours who have already introduced themselves and provided car seats and other useful items to the family.

“Megan is getting stronger and now crawling on the floor and eating during the day. It is amazing progress,” Bríd added.