Ethan Glenn
Ethan Glenn
^Angel^
Stage IV Neuroblastoma, an angel
Highland Park, IL, United States
Our Story
This monster entered our lives when Ethan was diagnosed with stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma on 3-1-04. He was 2 months shy of his 3rd birthday. He had a very large tumor in his abdomen with metastasis to his bone marrow. Ethan underwent 4 rounds of induction chemotherapy with wonderful results (or so we thought). The tumor shrunk by 85% and it looked as if his bone marrow was clearing. We went off therapy for roughly 5-6 weeks so he could have had surgery to remove the tumor on 6-17-04. To the surprise of the surgeon, there was a small piece of viable tumor on his main artery that did not show on the scans, so we were only able to get a partial resection. Then within 6 days, that small tumor grew back to the original tumor size, plus Ethan now had a brain lesion and a tumor behind the left eye. We were immediately taken off protocol due to progressive disease and began 3 rounds of high dose Topotetcan/Cytoxan + 18 rounds of radiation to the full brain and eye. Again, Ethan responded well (tumor shrinking + clear bone marrow biopsies). However, we are having difficulty getting "clean" stem cells so that we are eligible for many of the medical trials. We switched chemo agents to see if we could get a better response and we harvested one more time. Ironically, on 9-8-04, we were told that our last harvet of stem cells was "clean", but that the tumor was back and growing -quickly. This was our 2nd relapse in 10 weeks - we began pallative radiation to the abdomen for 5 days hoping for a response so that we could get to the next treatment option. However, Ethan's health detriotated quickly with fluid filling in lungs. On the morning of 9-21-04, Ethan passed away to Heaven, peacefully in his sleep, at home, with mommy and daddy by his side. No more pain.
Thank you
To our dear friends with hearts of gold, We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your support for "Lunch for Life" and helping to find a cure for this monstrous disease. So many of our children are fighting this disease. They give us inspiration every day and help us to realize what's really important in life. Through your support, we hope to find a cure and let our childrens' voices ring out and inspire the world. Thank you! Warmest regards, David & Nicole Glenn, parents to Ethan, age 3, who fought Neuroblastoma so gracefully