ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 A cancer treatment recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration is changing the landscape of care for pediatric patients.<\/p>\n
This is the case for 17-year-old Leah Pshedesky, who suffered a health scare the summer before her junior year of high school when she was shocked by a diagnosis of Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey found a tumor pressing against my windpipe and I think a part of my heart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The teen\u2019s specialized treatment plan was shaped by clinical trials that showed the benefits of an immunotherapy medication already being used in adults. The FDA recently approved Nivolumab with chemotherapy for pediatric patients 12 years and older.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not chemotherapy sort of in the traditional sense,\u201d said Pshedesky\u2019s oncologist at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Dr. Brian D. Guedes. \u201cIt\u2019s an antibody agent that harnesses a patient\u2019s own immune system.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to the high rates of cure is that we are sparing patients from more exposure to more traditional chemotherapy medications, which carry lots and lots of side effects and lots of long-term effects that some folks don\u2019t even realize initially in terms of potential kidney or liver damage or infertility,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Guedes said Pshedesky\u2019s cancer is now completely gone and that her response to the chemotherapy treatment meant she didn\u2019t need radiation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy that this is a treatable form of cancer, and the treatments keep getting better,\u201d Pshedesky said.<\/p>\n
Cancer-free and college-bound, the now high school senior said she has a newfound appreciation for music, which is something she has loved since she was a little girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can really just express yourself,\u201d said Pshedesky, who plays the piano and bassoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to channel those feelings into my music, being able to use the emotions from, I think, the diagnosis and the shock and just the whole, it was insanity being able to put that out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pshedesky’s parents say they are proud of, and inspired by their daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing but impressed by my daughter,\u201d said her father, Jared Pshedesky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see what the future holds for her,\u201d her mother, Saralynne Pshedesky, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful that I can sort of go on normally with my life now,\u201d Leah Pshedesky said. \u201cWithout having to worry about cancer anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 A cancer treatment recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration is changing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1187,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-426053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}