Do not let the story end

UPD: unfortunately, Artem died. The disease was stronger. The UBB team brings our sincere words of condolences to the boy's family and thanks to everyone who supported Artem. "Please do not put a period, this is not the end! Life must go on!", Artem's parents asked doctors. But onco-hematologists of OKHMATDYT have eliminated his son from the list of children with perspectives. They have failed to overcome the congenital lymphoblastic leukemia in the 1.5-year-old Artem Makhno with standard protocols of chemotherapy. After quick relapse doctors have sent the child home, offering parents to prepare for the worst. But there are methods to help Artemka already well-known in the world. 

Artem is not yet two years. He is too small to understand what is happening. He has no life experience to compare and make conclusions. He knows only pain, weakness, hospitals. Throughout his life, he desperately opposes the disease. When he was 7 months, he got into the intensive care unit of the Poltava Children's Hospital in a tough condition. At that moment there were 99% of malignant cells in his blood. The doctors did not give hope, but despite this, the parents believed in the child and in a miracle. Then, in 2018 the miracle happened – the condition of the baby managed to stabilize and after prolonged treatment in the department of oncohematology blasts dropped to 6,7%. But two months later there was a relapse.

The child was sent to Kiev, to OKHMATDYT. They found genetic recombination of the MLL gene and started high-dose chemistry after which the boy was sent home for recovering, promising to take the child after the results of a puncture. But the result shocked the parents. Doctors of OKHMATDYT stated the failure of standard antitumor treatment and discharged the child to palliative supportive therapy.

Though parents decided not to surrender and to start seeking treatment options. There are known modern methods of biotherapy of such complex forms of leukemia; and these methods are successfully applied abroad. The parents wrote to several clinics and were offered treatment by a modern CAR-T method. This is a targeted immunotherapy using the genetically modified cells of the patient. The application of this method in recent years has shown that 80% of children and adults with lymphoblastic leukemia reach remission and cure. The Israeli Chaim Sheba Medical Center is ready to admit Artem. The cost of the first stage – the survey and the actual CAR therapy is $ 100,000. If there is a remission – bone marrow transplantation will follow. It is additional $ 195,000.
This is the only hope for little Artem and his parents. But it is real if we collect funds quickly. The boy has very little time, his internal organs can refuse and then everything will be useless.

We plan to collect at UBB part of the required amount – 2 100 000 UAH.

Name: Artem Makhno, 12.05.2017

City: Khorol, Poltava region

Diagnosis: congenital lymphoblastic leukemia, L1 proB-ALL, associated with rearrangement of the MLL gene