Unorthodox tests on rodents help Ridgewood 9-year-old beat cancer
Sunday, April 14, 2013 Last updated: Sunday April 14, 2013, 12:40 AM
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
When repeated chemotherapy and radiation treatments failed to stop the cancerous tumors from growing in their 9-year-old son’s lungs and chest, a Ridgewood couple took a desperate chance — on a bunch of mice.
Michael Feeney and his mother, Jill, hugging in their Ridgewood home. The 9-year-old, who has been battling Ewing’s sarcoma since he was 6, had pieces of his tumors implanted into mice to test treatments. Michael’s tumors are now shrinking.
They paid a laboratory $25,000 to inject pieces of their son’s tumors into the rodents and then test different drugs on the mice. The lab offered no guarantees, but the hope was to find a treatment that would shrink the boy’s particular tumors and possibly cure him of Ewing’s sarcoma.
Months passed as the tumors grew in the mice and standard treatments failed on Michael Feeney. Then the lab discovered a three-drug cocktail that began to heal the mice, destroying the cancer cells.
