Secretive Mexican brain cancer clinic to be investigated by Australian expert
AN Australian brain cancer expert will travel to Mexico to investigate the controversial clinic reported to have successfully treated Australian children who have terminal brain cancer.
NSW
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- WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Inside the controversial Mexican clinic saving Aussie kids
- Little Annabelle Potts and her family have found hope with brain tumour treatment in Mexico
AN Australian brain cancer expert will travel to Mexico to investigate the controversial clinic reported to have successfully treated Australian children who have terminal brain cancer.
The Cure Brain Cancer Foundation (CBCF), the peak organisation for brain cancer research, has responded to The Sunday Telegraph’s call for Australian authorities to investigate the anecdotal success of the Monterrey-based Clinica 0-19’s treatment of children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG.
Parents of children with this devastating form of brain cancer are told to “go home and make memories” because there is nothing Australian doctors can do. DIPG is fatal and life expectancy is six to nine months.
For six months, The Sunday Telegraph has been following Australian families currently in Mexico undergoing the experimental treatment by Doctors Alberto Garcia and Alberto Siller.
The clinic uses a combination of immunotherapy and inter-arterial chemotherapy which feeds a cocktail of approved chemotherapy drugs through the artery directly into the brain tumour region.
The doctors have received criticism from Australian experts because they have not published any data on their techniques or their success rate, but the doctors say they are too busy treating 70 plus patients from around the world.
Two of the Australian girls, Annabelle Nguyen, five, and Annabelle Potts, four, have tumours that have shrunk to the point scans can no longer pick them up. There is no evidence of disease and both children appear well.
In the face of compelling evidence of the Australian children living beyond expectation, CBCF has decided to investigate.
“We’re willing to sponsor a DIPG expert to visit the lab and verify Clinica 0-19’s claim,” Michelle Stewart, CEO of CBCF said.
“Last week’s report (in The Sunday Telegraph) said the doctors were too busy to report their findings, and if we can provide assistance for them to get this information out, we are more than happy to.
“We want to send a DIPG expert who can report back on the drugs used so if any learning can be found, we can use that to treat patients locally. “
The CBCF has sent a letter requesting permission for the expert to attend and research the procedure and drugs used.
“We want to make the information available so that if researchers wanted to do a trial here, we could provide funding,” Ms Stewart said.
Annabelle Potts had her ninth treatment last week in Mexico and has arrived back home in Canberra.
Her parents have spent in excess of $300,000. Now 14 months post diagnosis, she is well enough to attend pre-school and ballet classes.
Her parents, Adam and Kathie Potts have lobbied both doctors and government to trial intra-arterial chemotherapy in Australia for brain cancer.
“I think it’s fantastic they are prepared to do that,” Mrs Potts said.
“Something is working there, the scans show Annabelle’s cancer is gone.
“It would be good if the Australian and Mexican doctors could work together, the doctors need to talk to each other.”
Annabelle Nguyen’s mother Sandy agreed.
“I really hope they can come up with something, for all kids with DIPG and especially for the families that are receiving treatments here in Mexico,” she said.
“This is so not fair for us, we didn’t choose to be on this road.”
She said that keeping her child alive has left the family homeless, in debt and reliant on fundraising to keep up maintenance treatments.
The CBCF is also supporting an upcoming Australian trial for children newly diagnosed with DIPG.
In collaboration with European doctors, the Biomede trial, expected to start in three months, will use DNA sequencing of biopsied DIPG tumours, found in the brain stem, to tailor specific drugs for a child’s individual tumour.
Dr Geoffrey McCowage, paediatric oncologist and head of the Australasian Children’s Cancer Trials, said the trial “will use such results in an effort to choose drugs for each patient according to their individual tumour characteristics”.
“For many years we didn’t biopsy these tumours because it was too dangerous to biopsy the brain stem, now neurosurgeons have computer guided image systems to plot a needle path,” Dr McCowage said.
“We then send the biopsy slides to Paris to do the tests to determine which targeted drugs work.”
Violeta Montes de Oca, a public relations consulted hired by the clinic, said they needed time to “be able to develop a program that allows receiving invited doctors”.
“Today, the clinic’s only priority is to devote all its attention and energy to trying to restore health and improve the quality of life of patients under treatment,” she said.
“As you will understand, it is very difficult at this time to offer a date to receive them.”