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Matthew's Story
When you first meet 8-year-old Matthew Costis he will probably greet you with a joke. Matthew is so full of joy and life that you would never know he had surgery less than a year ago to remove part of a brain tumor. Since then he’s been receiving additional therapy at Children’s National through the Brain Tumor Institute.
“The moment we entered Children’s National we were greeted with doctors and nurses who truly cared about Matthew,” said Matthew’s father, Tom Costis. “Everything was happening so fast, but each doctor came and spoke to us about what was happening.”
In February 2008, Matthew began complaining about a severe headache and was vomiting frequently. His parents rushed him to the emergency department. The diagnosis was every parent’s worst fear—Matthew had a giloblastoma multiforme (GBM), one of the most aggressive types of brain tumors. Less than one in five people diagnosed with GBM survive longer than two years.
Children’s Brain Tumor Institute is a multidisciplinary, internationally recognized collaboration of physicians that evaluates children in the United States with a brain tumor. By finding new treatments with fewer long-term effects, the team aspires to increase patients’ quality of life, as well as overall survival rates. The Institute also boasts one of the most active clinical research programs in the country. As the only center in the region and one of only a handful in the country with access to Children’s Oncology Group’s Phase I trials, Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium trials, and Neurofibromatosis Consortium clinical trials, Children’s National can offer patients access to the latest therapies.
Matthew receives treatment through a national clinical trial developed by Tobey MacDonald, MD. Matthew now comes to the Brain Tumor Clinic twice a week for infusions of this new medication and he has had virtually no side effects.
Today, Matthew is focusing on football, school, and his latest jokes. His motto is simple: “I listen to my doctors and just deal with it.” The Costis family is taking it one day at a time. “We are grateful to be a part of this clinical trial,” said Matthew’s mother, pictured with Matthew. “The Brain Tumor Institute has given us hope.”
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