Thirteen-year-old Anisa Juarez has cancer, but she identifies as an athlete first. When she learned in 2021 that she had metastatic thyroid cancer, her biggest worry wasn’t the diagnosis itself but whether she would have to sit out her next soccer tournament.
"When she had surgery, she asked her surgeon, ‘How long do I have to wait before I can play sports again?’” said Yvette Cortez, Anisa’s mother. “She just wanted to get back on the field. Sports have always been her motivation to keep going."
However, along with her determination to return to the soccer field, Anisa confronted a complicated medical journey that brought her to UCLA Health.
, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, and , a pediatric hematologist at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program, took on her case and introduced a treatment that effectively shrank her tumors and resolved her lung metastases.
Doctors administered , a tyrosine kinase inhibitor developed for thyroid cancer, after Anisa’s cancer spread to her lymph nodes, neck muscles and lungs.
The drug is used as a targeted therapy to treat certain types of lung and thyroid cancer. It works by blocking specific proteins, including those produced by the mutated RET fusion gene, which may help prevent cancer cells from growing. By blocking certain proteins, the drug also has a second effect of enhancing uptake of radioactive iodine to further attack the cancer.
After surgery to remove her thyroid and lymph nodes, Anisa began her treatment.
Significant improvement
Dr. Chiu said that after five months of selpercatinib, scans showed significant shrinkage of Anisa’s lung nodules, with only a few small ones remaining in her left lung.
By six months, her thyroglobulin levels, a marker of cancer activity, dropped from 23 ng/mL to 8.6 ng/mL. Thyroglobulin is a tool used to track and detect recurrence of thyroid cancer. Normal levels can range between 1.40-29.2 ng/mL for males and 1.50-38.5 ng/mL for females.
Less than a year after Anisa started selpercatinib, doctors say, her thyroglobulin levels reached a low of 0.8 ng/mL.
The treatment was a success, stopping Anisa’s cancer from spreading. On top of that, the young girl her mom describes as bright and full of life didn’t have to put her life on hold during treatment.
“She was able to undergo treatment without it stopping her from living the life she wanted,” Cortez said. “She didn’t experience side effects that held her back or forced her to pause.”
Being open to treatment options
Looking back, Cortez says she is grateful she took a chance on this treatment, doing whatever it took to save her daughter’s life. She encourages other parents to stay open to new options, as well, and to trust in the possibilities.
“I think it’s important for parents to know that doctors are still researching new ways to help kids overcome this,” Cortez said.
“Dr. Chiu didn’t have to offer us this option, but because he was experienced with it, we had a chance at this targeted treatment,” she said.
“I truly believe we were meant to go to UCLA," Cortez said. "Had we stayed local, the doctors might not have had the same experience, and things could have turned out differently. Doctors will give you the information you need, but you always have options. If a treatment could help your child, why not consider it?”
