Remember Oscar? He’s Now Cancer Free

Remember Oscar Saxelby-Lee, the five-year-old UK boy who was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and flew to Singapore for an experimental treatment?

Well guess what, he’s finally declared cancer-free as of Wednesday night, 15 January!

Rare & Aggressive Form Of Leukaemia

Oscar was first diagnosed with the condition in December 2018, and despite receiving countless treatments back home in the UK – four regimes of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, and treatment that required healthy cells to be injected into him – they all didn’t work.

Even though it seemed like everything was not in Oscar’s favour, his parents and doctors continued to look for ways to cure him.

And that was when they found out about an experimental treatment that was only available in Singapore.

They consulted the medical professionals in Singapore, and after much consideration, they flew him to Singapore for the experimental CAR-T cell immunotherapy at National University Hospital (NUH).

The treatment was found to be a success, and Oscar was declared cancer-free just two weeks later.

Their Only Hope

It must have been initially devastating for Oscar’s parents when they heard that “his disease is too aggressive” and were told to prepare for the worst.

Can you even imagine the amount of pain felt to be told that your child might not be able to make it?

But thankfully, Oscar is now free from cancer and his mother couldn’t hide her happiness as she took to Facebook to share the news. She said in a post on 16 January, “We know it’s the early days and anything can happen especially with his bone marrow being flat, but for now we are celebrating the news that we never thought we would hear!”

The Treatment

The experimental treatment that Oscar went through is called the CAR-T cell immunotherapy. As my colleague has previously explained, immune cells from a patient’s blood are essentially drawn and equipped with a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR-T). This receptor will bind itself to a specific protein on the cancer cell and activate the CAR-T cells to kill the cancer cells.

While the end result was delightful, the journey to get there wasn’t that smooth-sailing.

Oscar had a couple of complications – fever and multiple blood transfusions leading up to receiving the cell infusion – during his treatment that started on 19 December, a month after he arrived in Singapore. Despite all the complications, he persevered through it like a champ.

Although it seemed like the transfusion was going to be delayed on 23 December, they managed to clear everything up and Oscar was able to receive the cell infusion on Christmas Eve as planned.

Appealing For Blood Donations

Oscar’s full recovery doesn’t seem too bleak now and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all hoping for the best for him. He still has a bone marrow transplant procedure scheduled from his father and will only return to the UK after he completes his whole treatment.

He currently depends on blood transfusions and platelet donations, and his parents have appealed to the public for blood donations because the National Blood Reserve recently had a shortage: “Oscar is blood type O+ but remember to donate to save others too! Platelets can be donated from anyone so please I ask you all to kindly take a few minutes out of your day to help.”

Want To Help In Saving Lives?

If you’re keen to donate your blood to do your part in saving lives, you can do so at any of Singapore’s four blood banks:

• Dhoby Ghaut
• Health Sciences Authority (HSA) at Outram
• Westgate Tower
• Woodlands

You can also read more details and updates on the Red Cross website.

With that said, we wish to congratulate Oscar on being cancer-free and we hope that he’s able to make a full recovery soon!