Ella was 2 years old when her mom, Megan, felt a lump on the side of her daughter’s abdomen. Within days, Ella was hospitalized near her home in Virginia and her right kidney was removed. A biopsy ultimately revealed that Ella had stage 4 neuroblastoma--a relatively rare and difficult-to-treat pediatric cancer. Megan immediately began to research the best hospitals in the U.S. for treating neuroblastoma, which brought them to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Once at CHLA, Ella went through five cycles of chemotherapy in preparation for a stem cell transplant. Scans showed that the chemo was successful in killing the cancer in her abdomen, but a brand new spot had developed in her skull. "As a team we had to decide what to do,” says Megan. “We couldn’t move forward with a stem cell transplant, so we decided to take Ella off protocol and enroll her in a clinical trial.” Ella received a combination of chemotherapy and an immunotherapy drug called dinutuximab, as well as difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an experimental drug that has shown promising results when used to treat aggressive tumors like Ella’s. "Literally after two cycles she was clear—no evidence of disease. We stayed on that trial for a year and she remained clear, then we completed protocol with just immunotherapy and radiation, and she completed treatment officially in June 2022.” Megan is thrilled to say Ella is now a happy, healthy 4-year-old. “She spent the summer swimming and playing, and she’s been doing really, really well. I attribute all of that to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles." "We took advantage of everything CHLA has to making the stays better for kids,” Megan says. “Going to the [Child Life] playrooms. Music therapy. There are so many things that really did make our time go by easier. Honestly, it helped me a lot mentally—because whew! My mental health was wavering! But as long as I saw that Ella was OK, I was OK.” This #GivingTuesday, will you consider making a gift to CHLA to help more kids like Ella? Please donate today and your gift will be DOUBLED up to $150,000: https://bit.ly/Giving-Tuesday-CHLA or via our link in bio!