Little boy battling cancer is first from El Paso to undergo clinical trial therapy

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Some may be shocked to learn that only four percent of funding for cancer goes to pediatric cancer. There’s a young boy in El Paso who is fighting the battle of his life and has been chosen to take part in a trial treatment in hopes of saving not just his life but the life of countless other children too.

Zy Zarazua is 2 years old. A look at him would indicate he is an unbelievably happy child. A look at his Instagram account would show a child who is always smiling. He is Priscilla Jennings’s youngest child.

Jennings said Zy became ill before he turned two with fevers and they noticed he was limping.

He was seen by a doctor who ran tests in fear of an infection. Jennings said it all happened so fast.

Further testing revealed what no parent ever wants to hear, what no parent should ever have to hear.

The broken femur Zy had been limping around with for days, the fever, were symptoms of stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma.

"It was the worst moment of my life for sure," Jennings said.

She was in shock.

"They started explaining that in the CT scan they had found the tumor, and it looks like it's this cancer and it looks like it has spread already,” Jennings said. “I couldn't speak. I was by myself because of COVID. Zy's dad could not be in the room.”

Treatment for Zy’s cancer started immediately after diagnosis. Through the process, his mom learned about the four percent.

“It is frustrating to learn that only four percent of the funding goes to research for childhood cancers because kids are the future and they just deserve so much more,” she said.

Dr. Ranjan Bista is a Hematology and Oncology doctor with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso who is helping treat Zy at El Paso Children’s Hospital. He said neuroblastoma is a common cancer in pediatrics. Kids in the low risk category with it have an up to 95 percent survival rate while kids in the high-risk category sometimes have about a 50 percent survival rate. Dr. Bista said a lot of cancers are treatable and children tend to better than adults at handling treatment.

He said MIBG or metaiodobenzylguanidine therapy is a treatment that is in the trial phase for young patients with neuroblastoma.

"It's a targeted delivery of the radiation to the tumor,” Dr. Bista said.

"We believe if we give it upfront maybe we can improve the survival rate in patients with stage 4 neuroblastoma."

Due to a lack of hospitals that offer the trial treatment, children who qualify are put into a lottery type system and picked by a computerized system to undergo the treatment. Zy was one of the lucky ones.

"He was the first child from El Paso to be selected for that MIBG therapy," Jennings said.

Which for Jennings and Zy would mean flying to Cook’s Hospital in Fort Worth, and several days of isolation for Zy due to high radiation exposure. Not an easy thing for a child who still needs mom.

"He did a lot of growing up in there,” Jennings said. “He had to feed himself, he had to soothe himself. It was just hard to not be there for him when he needed something.”

After accidents, cancer is the second leading cause of death in children ages one to 14, according to the American Cancer Society. This year, it is estimated that 10,500 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer, nearly 1,200 under the age of 15 will die from it.

Dr. Bista said that in El Paso, children like Zy sometimes have to be flown out for some cancer treatments not yet available at the Children’s Hospital.

“Especially when it comes to the bone marrow transplants or stem cell transplant,” Dr. Bista said. “They usually go like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio.”

“It does add added stress to finances and being away from other kids and it just makes it harder,” said Jennings.

Zy's mom opened a GoFundMe account to help with those expense.

Dr. Bista said about 150 children have received MIBG treatment so far but it’ll be at least five years before they truly know if it will benefit kids with neuroblastoma.

“It may not end up helping Zy in particular but it will end up helping children in the future and that was really important for me,” Jennings said.

Dr. Bista said this is why clinical trials are so important, it’s a way of unlocking new information.

Zy, who is too young to know exactly what’s going on plays, smiles and laughs like a normal child. His positive spirits is strong enough to capture the attention of those who meet him. His mother said it’s almost an advantage that he doesn’t know what’s happening. She said he does get sick after treatment but often picks himself backup like a little warrior, sending her silent but also very loud messages of strength.

"I definitely don't want him to see me cry or sad ever so I do that away from him. He has just taught be strong in moments where you feel like giving up," Jennings said. "He's the bravest little boy that I know."