We first learned about Ryder's tumor in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. We were doing an MRI to take a closer look at his scoliosis, and that's when they found it. At 8 years old, Ryder had an astrocytoma tumor located inside of his spinal cord. Ryder has brain cancer.
A few unique things about his case, both good and bad. The doctors were amazed with his presentation. They had never seen a tumor this large in a child with no obvious presenting symptoms. Had we not done the MRI we would have never known it was there. Because it is inside the spinal cord, they are not overly worried about it spreading to other parts of the body, because it is mostly contained. However, it is interrwined within all the tissue and nerves so it is not surgically removable. At this point in timeremoval is impossible without irreparable damage to his body or death.
We have tried numerous chemotherapy treatments to keep it from growing, and to hopefully shrink it. So we do what we can for now and pray that science finds a way to heal him.
The Run of Hope supports pediatric cancer research at Seattle Children's. Please join my team!
Cancer is #1 cause if disease-related death fir children and approximately 1 in every 257 children in the US will be diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday. Yet less than 8% of federal funding for cancer research is directed toward pediatric cancer research. An even smaller percentage of that goes directly towards brain cancer. Donate and help us find a cure.
