My name is Ally Tamayose, I’m 16 years old and I’m from Pearl City, Hawaii. I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in my left femur in January 2018. In that same year I underwent nine months of chemotherapy and had a limb-salvage surgery.
In January 2019, scans revealed that the mets in my lungs had grown and I began another chemo road map and had my first double thoracotomy at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. In January 2020, I had a third thoracotomy done to remove more lung mets that had continued to grow.
In June 2020, I participated in a CART-2 clinical trial at Texas Children’s in Houston, Texas. Following the clinical trial, I had another double thoracotomy to remove more lung mets that had grown. I then began taking an immunotherapy drug in hopes that it would keep me stable but that medication ended up giving me really bad hand, arm, leg, and feet sores so we ultimately made the decision to stop the inhibitor. My sixth thoracotomy was done in April 2021 to remove more lung mets that had grown and I began taking oral chemotherapy. I was on that medication for about 7 months, but the mets in my lungs continued to grow. I had my seventh thoracotomy done in November 2021.
Following that surgery, I began to develop headaches and it worsened throughout the holiday season. As 2022 came around, I was scheduled to have my eighth thoracotomy done in early January but we had to postpone it after scans revealed a mass on my brain that was causing pressure and giving me headaches. I had a craniotomy done to remove the tumor on January 11, 2022 and had my thoracotomy done 2 weeks after that.
Following the craniotomy, I started brain radiation to help treat the mets in my brain and started taking two different medications in hopes that they can keep my lung and brain mets stable.
In April 2022, scans showed that the medications were working on my brain mets but not on my lung mets. It was decided at that time thoracotomies were no longer a safe option for me. We then looked for other treatment options and ended up choosing SBRT radiation treatments with immunotherapy infusions.
Currently, I just completed my first round of my new medication and SBRT to my lungs. These past 4 years have taught me a lot about cherishing life, having hope and staying positive. All of which helps me continue to fight cancer.
