Trial medication helps shrink 5-year-old's brain tumor

At only 5 years old, Abigail Jensen has met -- and even been kissed by -- her Prince Charming.

He is tall, with dark hair and handsome, Jensen said at a family gathering Sunday. She said her prince charming was a gentleman and kissed her on the hand.

"It was crazy!" she said.

The meeting was all part of her wish as told to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in November. In August, Jensen was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable, brain tumor, but with the help of a new clinical trial is making steady progress toward keeping her symptoms subsided.

She and her family returned from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 15, after a six-day trip involving a series of meetings with her favorite cartoon characters, including Cinderella and Prince Charming. The family of five stayed at the Give Kids The World Village near the park where Abigail and her two sisters were pampered by other princesses and treated to a make over at the Bippity Boppity Boutique.

Abigail said she's "kicking brain tumor butt."

"She knows she has a brain tumor and that gave her an explanation for why she was dizzy," said her mother Maegan Jensen. "It answered questions for her that she had. We've been very honest with her, letting her know what's happening."

Diagnosed at age 4, Abigail began chemotherapy and radiation within two weeks of first being diagnosed at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Soon after, doctors put her on a trial medication, part of a study being conducted by the hospital.

The trial drug was later paired with the radiation, which had never been done before. Because doctors didn't know what to expect, Maegan Jensen said she and her husband, Jon, were told to be prepared that Abigail may lose the ability to speak, swallow and walk when receiving the treatment.

To the family's and doctors' surprise, scans taken at an Oct. 29 appointment revealed the tumor shrank by two-thirds.

And at a Dec. 23 appointment, doctors told the Jensens the tumor had decreased even more since their October visit.

"We were really lucky to have gotten that medicine," Maegan Jensen said. "We told doctors 'Your medicine and our prayers are a really good combination. It seems to be working out really well.' You could tell by her symptoms; you knew it had to have shrunk."

Since the December doctor's visit, though, Abigail has suffered a urinary tract infection, which caused her blood count to drop twice. Doctors managing Abigail Jensen's case concluded the dosage of the study drug was too high, according to Maegan Jensen. So, because her blood count dropped two times, the 5-year-old was taken off the medication, but is still part of the study.

Symptoms haven't returned, so far, indicating the tumor hasn't grown.

"Typically, 13 to 14 months is how long they go symptom free and then the tumor will regenerate and grow back, statistically," Maegan Jensen said. "But, at the same time no one else is Abigail and no one has had her medicine. I can't rely on statistics because of it."

Abigail Jensen and her parents will return to the Children's Hospital in March and in the meantime, Maegan and Jon Jensen, will keep an eye out for symptoms the tumor is growing again. They'll pray the medicine keeps working, Maegan Jensen said, and prepare the home for baby girl No. 4.

Abigail Jensen is also set to be enrolled in kindergarten in the fall.

"I know there's not one part of me that thinks that she won't survive this. We've prayed about it many, many times and I have personally been told she will survive this," Maegan Jensen said. "She's going to have a happy life, she's going to be married someday and have kids of her own."

ehevern@semissourian.com

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