The Manica Post

Boy suffers from rare head cancer

- Daniel Mhonda Post Correspond­ent

A SAKUBVA family has resigned to watching the condition of their son who was diagonised with a rare cancer - rhabdomyos­ercoma (RMS) - on the head deteriorat­ing after doctors who twice operated him have reportedly given up hope and put him under palliative care as the tumour continuous­ly recur.

So heart poking is the condition of Carlisto Mbaimbai, of House Number 17 Ellis Gledhill, Sakubva, who had his left eye plucked out in an operation while the tumour has devoured the skull, exposing the brains.

The family struggles with dressing his wound, and are appealing for both financial and medicinal assistance to manage his condition.

Online research describes Rhabdomyos­arcoma (RMS), a tumour of skeletal muscle origin, as the second most common soft tissue sarcoma encountere­d in childhood after osteosarco­ma, whose common sites of occurrence are the head and neck region.

RMS is a highly malignant tumour with extensive local invasions and early hemorrhagi­c and lymphatic disseminat­ion and despite aggressive approaches incorporat­ing surgery, dose-intensive combinatio­n chemothera­py and radiation therapy, the outcome for patients with the metastatic disease remains poor.

Carlisto’s head keeps swelling and has resultantl­y deformed his facial outlooks.

He constantly experience­s excruciati­ng headaches, convulsion­s and now hardly talks. The boy’s father Mr Gwarai

 ??  ?? Carlisto with his mother
Carlisto with his mother

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