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Thanks to an experimental drug and a positive outlook, a young girl from Pasadena, Maryland, with a malignant brain tumor, will be graduating from high school.
"I always try to tell people to always wear a smile with every outfit." Brittany Frederick, 18, has lived by that motto since seventh grade, when doctors discovered a malignant tumor the size of a grapefruit in her brain.
"I was kind of like like, if it's my time, then I'll go, if not, then I'll stay."
Only 25 percent of children with malignant gliomas like Brittany's survive three years after diagnosis. Doctors at Children's Hospital acted quickly and surgically removed 95 percent of the tumor and started radiation. But doctors knew radiation alone wouldn't give Brittany the best chance of survival. They asked her to try an experimental drug called Iressa, that targeted tumor cells.
"They wanted to put her on the Iressa, which we had no clue, anything about, but said it's worth a try," said Brittany's mother, Connie Kemmerer.
Now, five years later, Brittany has a full head of hair and no tumor.
Most patients on the drug weren't as lucky. Iressa is no longer used to treat this condition, but it worked for Brittany, who still takes it every day.
"Although we hope, because it's been five years, this doesn't have growth capacity, we don't know that, and that the reason why we're maintaining her on the drug just in case the drug is the one thing helping her not have this tumor come back,' said Neurologist, Dr. Roger Packer.
Brittany said she hasn't taken anything for granted anymore, including her senior prom and graduation.
"Going to the prom, as I drove her up there she said 'I bet you didn't think this day was gonna come', I'm like, I wasn't too sure but I'm happy it did," said Kemmerer.
Brittany will begin classes at Shenandoah University where she plans to study early education and one day be a teacher.
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