Filipino girl travels the globe to find first-of-its-kind cure for cancer

Aspen Tangonan responded to treatments and is completely off therapy since 2021. Photos by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

When 9-year-old Aspen Tangonan was 22 months old, she was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma — an aggressive tumor arising from nerve tissues and cells.

At the time, her family had no idea Aspen would become the first pediatric patient successfully treated with a novel drug combination for high-risk refractory neuroblastoma.

Aspen underwent lengthy treatment at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, using a protocol developed and shared by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital doctors and researchers. But six months later, the cancer was spreading again.

Aspen’s care team wanted to try immunotherapy, but the treatment was unavailable in the Philippines.

“We trusted our doctors back home; they were the best of the best,” said Stephanie Uy, Aspen’s mom. “But they told us it would be difficult to bring this treatment to the Philippines because they didn’t know if the facility could support it.”

Aspen with pediatric oncologist, Sara Federico, MD

Aspen’s oncologist, Maria Luz Del Rosario, MD, found an opportunity for treatment at St. Jude, located on the other side of the globe in Memphis, TN. St. Jude treats children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases regardless of their race, ethnicity, beliefs or ability to pay. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on helping their child live, regardless of the duration or the cost of care.

“When they told us that everything will be free, it was like a thorn was taken away. At first it’s unbelievable. We didn’t expect anything like this. We were so grateful,” said her dad, Mark.

Connecting across global borders to access care

Aspen, Stephanie and Mark flew to Memphis in September 2019. For the next three months, the rest of the family stayed in the Philippines while Maria and her parents met with pediatric oncologist Sara Federico, MD, Solid Tumor Division director, Department of Oncology, and other care team members at St. Jude.

By January 2020, Aspen, her parents and her two siblings had fully relocated from the Philippines to Memphis, and Aspen began treatment once again. Federico treated Aspen for relapsed neuroblastoma using different combinations of therapies that stabilized her disease. But she was still a long way from a cure.

With mom Stephanie Uy

Aspen’s best chance at a curative therapy lay in the genomics of her cancer, so Federico requested tumor tissue samples from Maria’s initial surgery in the Philippines for genetic sequencing. When the samples arrived in Memphis, St. Jude researchers identified a germline (inherited) mutation in the BARD1 gene, a finding that gave Federico a new focus point for identifying potential treatments.

Aspen responded to a series of treatments, becoming the first child with refractory high-risk neuroblastoma to have a durable response to a PARP inhibitor and chemotherapy combination. She has been completely off therapy since October 2021.

While the science advances and research continues, Aspen and her family revel in a life without treatment. She has been healthy and off treatment for over three years. The family still comes to St. Jude for checkups every six months to monitor the disease and mitigate any treatment-related symptoms that may arise.

Aspen Tangonan wants to continue to be a girl “who travels the world.” For a family whose only direction was forward as they traversed the globe in search of a cure, anything seems possible.



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