‘THE TUMOUR IS STABLE, WHICH IS THE BEST NEWS WE COULD ASK FOR’

AT JUST two years old, Aubrey Line is one of the youngest people in Britain to benefit from genomics testing.

The toddler, from Wootton, Bedfordshire, was 16 months old when scans revealed a tumour had wrapped itself around the heart and aorta – a major artery. Doctors at Addenbrooke’s judged it was too dangerous to operate, but were able to carry out whole genomic sequencing in order to find out exactly what sort of cancer it was.

They suspected it was a pleuropulmonary blastoma, a hereditary cancer. If so, there could be implications for other family members. But there was a chance it could be rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer affecting muscle cells.

Aubrey’s mother Anna Garrod, 33, said: ‘Looking back, it was a complete blur. It just went from bad to worse.’

The genetic tests confirmed it was a rhabdomyosarcoma, so there were no implications for the family and, better still, the cancer showed no signs of any mutation that would have made it more aggressive.

This meant Aubrey was able to start taking a maintenance chemotherapy, called cyclophosphamide, at home and needs to attend hospital weekly to have vinorelbine, another chemo drug, injected.

Without sequencing, Aubrey’s doctors would have been making an informed guess as to how to treat her.

Anna, who has an older son Harry, six, with partner Paul Line, said: ‘We’ve just had a scan that showed the tumour is stable, which is the best news we could hope for.

‘They’ve told us she can’t be cured, so we just have to take each day as it comes and hope there might be a chance to operate. But thanks to sequencing the tumour, we have a much better idea of what we’re dealing with.’