How I fought cancer at a young age.

By Ashley Tsuji

At 6 years old, I was eagerly looking forward to the end of the second grade and enjoying a long summer vacation. However, sharp pains in my arms and legs kept me home during the last week of school and bedridden for most of the summer. Other symptoms, including a fever, fatigue, bruises and red spots, made my doctors suspect childhood leukemia.

An abnormal increase of white blood cells in the bone marrow is one of the first indications of leukemia. Leukemia accounts for about one in every three childhood cancers.

Because symptoms of leukemia can be mistaken for less-serious conditions, it is often not diagnosed at an early stage. It wasn’t until my symptoms persisted for about six months that my doctors decided to have me tested for leukemia. I was given a simple blood test and diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

ALL is the most common type of childhood leukemia, occurring primarily between the ages of 2 and 4. The American Cancer Society estimates that of 3,500 children diagnosed with leukemia each year, 75 percent will have ALL.

After my diagnosis, my family and I flew from Hilo to Honolulu to begin my treatment, which my doctors tailored according to my specific type and stage of leukemia, age, and overall health. The result was a personal roadmap that charted my treatment decisions for the next three-and-a-half years. I was tested throughout that time to ensure that chemotherapy was effective and that I remained in partial remission. If I were to have fallen out of remission, I would need to start again with more intense treatment.

Treatment can include radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant. However, mine was administered through chemotherapy, a combination of drugs in the form of pills, injections, and intravenous infusions. Doctors gave me a comic book to help explain my chemotherapy. It illustrated chemotherapy drugs as a blind superhero who kills the bad cells and also kills the good cells. The blind destruction of both cancer and healthy cells caused many side effects, including hair loss, body aches, digestive problems, and fatigue.

After more than three years of traveling to Honolulu for about a week at a time, my journey was finally complete. A biopsy confirmed that the cancer was gone, and that I didn’t need chemotherapy anymore. I returned to school as a full-time sixth grader; after five years of annual tests, doctors declared me in complete remission, or free from cancer.

Since my treatment in the 1980s, there have been many medical advances in the treatment of childhood leukemia. My treatment plan was quite different from what is commonly prescribed today. Although the causes of leukemia remain unknown, recent research suggests radiation, chemical exposure and genetics as possible factors. Ongoing studies continue to improve detection methods, treatment choices, and quality of life for leukemia patients worldwide.

Undergoing chemotherapy at an early age meant experiencing a different kind of childhood than that of my peers. But I never let that bother me. I always remembered to be grateful for the things that I did have, such as a loving family and friends who believed in my survival and supported me every step of the way.