Calcification lesion

Last week, whilst putting the girls to bed, we had a call from Eloise’s neurosurgeon at St George’s.  He was phoning to go through Eloise’s MRI with us in more detail.  He confirmed that Eloise remains with No Evidence of Disease and that there was no sign of low or high pressure/hydrocephalus, but said that the scan showed that Eloise had signs of calcification.

This area with calcification has been seen on previous scans (we’ve not actually seen it on a scan – just verbally heard), but the MRI a couple of weeks ago showed that the calcification lesion was ‘brighter’ or of higher intensity than previous scans. It looks like it is ‘changing’ slightly. Apparently, after lots of discussions with the radiologists, they don’t think it’s grown, but they do think it is ‘brighter’.  It is in the middle of the pons area of her brain stem and is 7mm (so small, but definitely there).  There is no chance of it being removed without it causing unnecessary and significant damage due to its location in the brain stem.  And no one really knows if it will, or if it is, causing any of Eloise’s challenges. 

Calcification like this is apparently very unusual in children. The working assumption is that it has been caused by treatment (possibly proton, but it is difficult to attribute causality). The radiologists are confident the lesion/abnormality is calcification and not a tumour by how it is presenting (there’s some more technical stuff in here, but we will save you from that!) but it is unusual, and it looks like it might be changing/becoming ‘brighter’. 

Consequently, when Eloise has her next MRI (now in 4 months, slightly longer than 3, so yay!), they will do a CT scan at the same time as the MRI, as a CT scan shows up calcification clearer than the MRI – then the team will have two scans at the same point in time to compare and present before MDT.

Whilst this is all rather technical, we have put it out on the blog for a few reasons – firstly for prayers, secondly as we want to be honest about the highs and the lows of this journey, and thirdly as you never know if someone might have come across this before.  So far, it does appear unusual – but Eloise has had a very rare tumour, in an unusual location, and has had a variety of forms of new treatment!

At present there is no treatment for this calcification lesion.  The hope is that it will just ‘sit there’ and not change… but nobody really knows.

For those that pray:

• Give thanks that despite the abnormality, Eloise remains with No Evidence of Disease (ETMR cancer).
• Please pray this calcification lesion doesn’t get any bigger/change or cause Eloise any issues.  Pray that in future scans it even disappears (this feels a bolder prayer, but God’s done much bigger in this journey already)?!
• Pray for Eloise’s brain to be restored and healed, and for it to be protected from the long term effects of the cancer and her treatment.  Pray for neural pathways to be developed and for Eloise to develop and thrive!

PS: We left out the ‘how do you feel about this’ bit as … we’re not really sure how we feel about this. We keep plodding, praying and loving on Eloise & Anna