Three years ago, the lives of Cecilia Bolocco and her son Máximo took an unexpected turn when the young man was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The prognosis was not very encouraging, but a special proton treatment saved the life of the minor who was 14 years old at the time.
The family’s gratitude was such that mother and son created the Care Foundation whose objective is to create a cancer center to bring the therapy that cured him of cancer in the United States, which is not yet present in Latin America.
Máximo spoke with Meganoticias about the treatment and the role that the foundation will have to help fight cancer in the country.
“My tumor was so rare that there was no procedure… I was going to have a two-year chemotherapy treatment, that I was not going to be able to see anyone, radiotherapy with almost no survival,” Máximo recalled about the first diagnosis he had.
A novel treatment
Since the prognosis was so bleak, the family kept looking for more options and a medical center in the United States gave them hope. It had a novel treatment: proton therapy, a focused proton radiation that directly attacks the tumor and reduces radiation to other tissues.
Dr. Carlos Vargas, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, explained to the media that “one has the ability to have good tumor control, cure the disease, but since the dose in the surrounding tissue is lower, the rates of toxicity and complications derived of treatment are minor”.
Máximo elaborated on the possible complications that she would have had with a traditional treatment, explaining that “my mother was told that I was going to stay the size that was 1.71, I am 18.3″.
“That I could go blind, I see perfectly. That I was not going to be able to listen and hear well and I have perfect hearing, “added the young man.
A chance to improve
Although Chile has made progress in recent decades in the fight against cancer, it still has a long way to go to reach the levels of developed countries. Therefore, proton therapy represents an important contribution since it has managed to improve prognosis, especially in cases of childhood cancer.
After learning about the treatment through her son, the former Miss Universe signed an agreement to bring this technology closer to the country. And she already took a step further, since she organized a congress with specialists to set up a center in Chile.
“To be able to bring it (proton therapy) to Chile so that all the children born here and in South America also have the possibility that I had of being able to continue with a good life without limits,” Máximo explained about the objective of the foundation.