On Sunday, July 29, 2012, Maylene went to her mother, Jennifer, because of a lump she noticed on her lower abdomen. Jennifer brought her to the pediatrician who decided to do a precautionary ultrasound. The ultrasound picked up a large mass around her ovary and fallopian tube, so the doctor decided to have Maylene have a CT-Scan. The CT-Scan confirmed that Maylene had a large Teratoma Tumor on her ovary.
Maylene and Jennifer were immediately sent to Baystate Medical to meet with a pediatric surgeon and May underwent surgery on Wednesday, August 8, 2012. During the surgery the surgeon informed Jennifer that they had found a second tumor on Maylene's other ovary. The first tumor discovered, even after being drained in order to be removed, was the size of a volleyball, and the second tumor was the size of a softball. The surgeon consulted with his partner as well as a radiologist and decided it was necessary to remove part of the ovaries that the tumors were attached to while attempting to leave a portion of her ovaries intact. It is important to Maylene that she maintains the ability to have children someday and so if at all possible to keep some of her ovaries, she wanted to do so.
After surgery, the doctors told Jennifer and Maylene that they had to wait approximately 5 days to get the biopsy results back to determine if the tumors were cancerous or not. He said with these types of tumors, the chance of them not being cancerous was about 90%. However, if the tumors were cancerous, then a second surgery would be necessary to remove Maylene’s remaining ovaries.
On, Thursday, August 16, Jennifer received a call from the surgeon’s office asking that she and Maylene come into the office in order to discuss the results of the biopsy. At this point Jennifer knew they had to have found cancer. She brought Maylene back to the surgeon’s office, and it was there that their worst fears were confirmed. The tumors were BOTH cancerous!
In a meeting with Maylene's oncologist, Dr. Matthew Richardson of the Sadowski Center for Children at Baystate, he explained that the type of cancer that Maylene has is called Germ Cell Tumor. The specific Germ Cell Tumor she has is called a Yolk Sac Tumor or Endodermal Sinus Tumor of the Ovaries. Only 1% of people with a Teratoma Tumor have this type of cancer. The Yolk Sac Tumor is a grade 3 level, which means that it is an extremely aggressive cancer. The stage of cancer is still to be determined, but Dr. Richardson stated that no matter what stage cancer Maylene has, she will have to be on an intense regimen of Chemotherapy. Every 21 days Maylene will receive her Chemotherapy and will be hospitalized for 3-5 days for each session because of its intensity. The plan right now is for Maylene to receive four sessions of this Chemotherapy.
Because of the extreme rarity of this type of cancer, Dr. Richardson contacted a colleague at the Dana Farber Institute in Boston for a second opinion. Because time is of the essence, until Jennifer hears from Dana Farber, Maylene will be proceeding at Baystate with her Chemotherapy. She had to undergo a second surgery on Monday, August 20 to have a stint implanted for the chemo treatments which will begin in the next couple of weeks after preliminary tests to make sure Maylene is not allergic to or has adverse side effects from the drugs.
Maylene will have an MRI and P.E.T. Scan done to determine if the cancer has spread or metastasized.
You can beat this Maylene! Still praying for you <3
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