Jubilee Beats Cancer

When Jubilee stopped eating, her parents started worrying.

Born in Missouri, Jubilee and her family moved to Texas when she was about five months old. After settling in and looking for a pediatrician, her parents started to watch Jubilee’s growth, which was slower than average. Her mom wasn’t too concerned considering she was smaller when she was a baby too.

But at about a year old, Jubilee stopped eating. Which was highly unusual because she had always had a healthy appetite.  Soon after, in February 2008, her parents brought Jubilee to Children’s.

Doctors immediately found a mass of neuroblastoma, which had grown so large it was pushing on Jubilee’s stomach and preventing her from eating. According to her mom, it was about the size of her fist. A large mass, considering Jubilee weighed only 13 pounds.

Her aggressive cancer required aggressive treatment.

Through tests, doctors determined that the mass was a very aggressive form of neuroblastoma, with a high risk for recurrence.

So they acted quickly in a wide variety of ways. Jubilee underwent six cycles of chemotherapy, visiting the hospital every 3 to 4 weeks. She responded well, and the mass began to decrease in size. Then in July 2008, she had an aggressive surgery to remove any residual tumor.

After her chemo was completed, Jubilee underwent two back-to-back autologous stem cell transplants. Doctors used her own stem cells, which had been harvested months earlier, to rescue her immune system.