Remember Toby Pannone, the Park Slope toddler, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma last year? Well, there’s is good news to be shared.
That adorable little boy is cancer free.
April 17, 2007 was the day that changed the lives of Toby Pannone and his parents, Mookie and Stephen, forever.
Now, it is more than one year later and Toby is cancer free after two surgeries, ten week-long rounds of chemotherapy, more than 50 cycles of radiation to abdomen, spine, upper arm and neck, after countless hospitalizations, 15 days of 3f8 immunotherapy, a month of shingles, and hundreds of injections.
Toby is clean; has no evidence of disease.
The CT and MiBG scans showed no signs of neuroblastoma. The bone marrow biopsies and aspirates showed no cancer cells. And the urine results are normal.
So what’s the possibility of having a giant love-fest in Prospect Park, where we all whirl around and eat lots of food and wine, hug each other and sing praises to God, friends, doctors, nurses? Where Randy sings and the sun shines and children laugh? Where we feel the power of love and hope and community? We are SO there.
Toby most likely has cancer cells still lurking in his body. Since neuroblastoma is aggressive, with an extremely high relapse rate, doctors don’t speak of remission. So treatment will continue unchanged: another round of chemo at the beginning of May, with an attempt to harvest more stem cells on April 28. And we wait for Toby’s hama level to come down.
On Saturday, May 10, Toby, his parents and friends will walk in Central Park to raise money for neuroblastoma research. Mookie, Toby’s mom, writes on their blog.
Kids Walk for Kids with Cancer was started 7 years ago by Shirley Staples’s daughter Sophie. Since then, it has raised almost $525,000. The walk is organized by NYC middle- and high-school students and it has blossomed into quite a wonderful event. It starts at 2 p.m. in Central Park, across from Tavern on the Green at W. 67th and CPW. First is a brief program that includes doctors who treated both Shirley’s son Simon and Toby. Next is the 4.5 mile walk. Everyone is welcome, from babies to grandparents, and even pets. We will be there to walk with Toby, in support of all the brave children battling this terrible disease. The survival rate for neuroblastoma is a dismal 30%, so more funding for research is desperately needed. Funds raised will help MSKCC researchers improve the odds for our children. We hope you can join us. Please email our dear friend Reva at walkfortoby@gmail.com if you would like to participate. Thank you so much and we hope to see you there.