1-year-old boy from Lindsay fighting rare cancer
With a 20% survival rate, Mario's parents aren't giving up hope as they have faith in his resiliency.
LINDSAY, Calif. (KFSN) -- In a fight for his life, a toddler from Lindsay is battling a rare form of cancer thousands of miles from home.
His family has relocated to Boston to provide the best care possible, and his parents had to quit their jobs to make the move.
In March of this year, one-year-old Mario Sanchez was diagnosed with malignant rhabdoid cancer, a rare childhood tumor that typically starts in the kidneys.
His parents took him to the doctor after noticing a hardening of Mario's stomach and were not prepared for the horrible news they heard.
"This cancer can really go anywhere in your body, and he got it in the liver when it was discovered. When he got diagnosed, it was already going to the lungs," explained Mario's mom, Yolanda Andrade.
The aggressive cancer was categorized as stage four.
After his diagnosis, Mario's parents made the difficult decision to quit their jobs and move Mario and his 2-year-old sister across the country from Lindsay, California to Boston, Massachusetts to seek treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
"Even here at Dana-Farber, they've told us, the position of the tumor, which is in the liver, they hadn't seen one in three years," added Andrade.
The physical, emotional, and financial strain has taken a toll on the entire family.
Mario's dad had to pass up his dream job of being a wildland firefighter.
"I was willing to do whatever it takes just to see that Mario gets the care that he needs and that he's going to be the happy baby and continues to be the happy baby," said Mario's Dad, Mario Sanchez.
Chemotherapy has helped with the tumor in Mario's liver, but the cancer in his lungs has been relentless.
The family is now turning to clinical trials that will hopefully help Mario's immune system mimic healthy cells.
"The clinical trial is helping but it's also not showing the best results, so we are looking into other treatments like radiation or other clinical trials," explained Andrade.
With a survival rate of 20% living the past five years, Mario's parents aren't giving up hope as they have faith in his resiliency.
"That's one thing that going through this has shown us, that no matter what's going on, little Mario, he's going to be the happiest baby ever, he is going to try his best to play and run around or do whatever he wants to do," said Sanchez.
Mario will turn two next month.
His family has started a GoFundMe page to help with all of the costs of going through treatment so far from home.
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