(Perth Now, Feb 12,2018): FIVE-YEAR-OLD Annabelle Nguyen wasn’t meant to live past her fourth birthday.
Three years ago Perth doctors gave her nine months to live when she was diagnosed with an inoperable Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) growing in her brain.
Her parents Sandy and Choong Nguyen sold everything, including their home, to fly to Mexico, so Annabelle could undergo experimental cancer treatment.
Now, doctors in Mexico have told her parents scans show the tumour is gone.
“I was just speechless, I couldn’t say anything,” Ms Nguyen said.
“I didn’t cry, I didn’t laugh, I didn’t do anything. I was like, are you serious? It was unbelievable.”
Doctors in Monterrey injected Annabelle with a mix of chemotherapy drugs through a catheter inserted into an artery, sending them directly to the brain tumour.
She had ten treatments, at a cost of more than $300,000. Her parents say they didn’t see any results until the seventh treatment.
“There’s no tumour, there’s no activity in her brain at the moment. So we are very, very thankful and very, very happy,” Ms Nguyen said.