100 strong for Adrianna

• By RELMA HARGUS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 20, 2009

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When the young daughter of a childhood friend was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Michelle Russo knew how she wanted to help.

"My goal for my friend is to remove any worry about money so she and her husband can spend every moment with Adrianna," Russo said.

Russo launched "100 Strong for Adrianna," a fundraising campaign aimed at providing money to allow Stephanie and Joe Cavanagh to be with their daughter during treatments that have a potential for curing her, or at least providing remission.

Adrianna Cavanagh was diagnosed with neuroblastoma on March 10 — her mother’s birthday — when Stephanie Cavanagh took the 2-year-old to the pediatrician for what appeared to be the flu. Because the typical symptoms associated with neuroblastoma are fever, diarrhea and loss of appetite that scenario is not uncommon.

But the diseases are very different.

A patient with neuroblastoma — a rare cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that affects mostly infants and children — faces numerous procedures including blood and urine tests, X-rays and bone marrow biopsies. Chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, bone marrow transplants and more specialized experimental treatments are also in the physicians’ arsenal.

"The five-year survival rate is 30 percent for stage 4 neuroblastoma, such patients as Adrianna. She will be considered cured when she makes it past the five-year mark with no relapses," Russo said.

Treatments are conducted in phases and usually take about two years to complete. Each year about 700 new cases are diagnosed in the United States. Half of all neuroblastomas have already spread to the bone and bone marrow by the time they are diagnosed, according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Web site.

After long days spent at the New Orleans Children’s Hospital, where four rounds of chemotherapy shrank the tumor to half its original size, the Cavanaghs left July 3 for New York City.

Surgery to remove the tumor is scheduled July 20 at Memorial Sloan-Kittering Cancer Center with Dr. Michael LaQuaglia, chief pediatric surgeon there. The family will use the time before then visiting with Joe’s family who live in New York and Connecticut.

Russo, married to a physician and herself a clinical lab scientist, knew what the diagnosis meant when she learned Adrianna had the disease and immediately wanted to help.

Her concept: Enlisting 100 people to collect $1,000 in 100 days.

"I wanted it to be very easy, not a bake sale or silent auction," Russo said. "Then, it just came to me, if we could find a lot of people working together to contribute, we could do it."