At age eleven, Christina Lagogiannis was diagnosed with cancer whilst in her last year of primary school. For what would be a year now, she has been fighting her disease and still manages to stay positive. Christina has been through several surgeries and has undergone severe chemotherapies, yet her will-power grows stronger and her smile never leaves her face. Christina still attends school and tells her parents every day that she “will go to Germany and get well”.

“All I want is to help my girl get the treatment she deserves, make her wish for a long and prosperous, cancer-free life come true,” her mother Nayree Lagogiannis tells Neos Kosmos.

“She’s relapsed. The doctors offered us chemotherapy here, without having done further studies on this type of cancer, so we don’t know what will come out of it.”

Christina was diagnosed with osteo sarcoma last January and promptly began chemotherapy, at Monash Clayton Hospital. The cancer was detected in her right femur bone, leading to a full knee and femur replacement at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital. Christina then underwent further chemotherapy, which caused her heart function to drop by 26 per cent, due to one of the chemotherapy drugs. While still undergoing chemotherapy, oncologists detected lesions in her lungs. Once she completed her treatment in early September, she again had to undergo further surgery on her knee due to infection, and went on antibiotics, both orally and through IV for three more months.

The oncologists treated the lesions in her lungs as part of an infection related to the infection in her knee, so it was only after a month of antibiotics that they conducted a CT scan, which proved them wrong. The lesions had grown in size, so she was booked in immediately to undergo a biopsy via keyhole surgery. Four lesions were removed from her right lung during this procedure, three of which were malignant. Four weeks later they performed an open surgery on her left lung at which time five lesions were removed and three were malignant.

Unfortunately, Christina’s ordeal didn’t come to an end as three weeks post-surgery, another CT scan was conducted, showing new lesions in both lungs. They once again conducted open surgery on the right lung, from which seven lesions were removed, all malignant.

The family has now been told that Christina is at the fourth stage of cancer. The doctors are offering chemotherapy with no percentage rate of remission and most of all survival, whilst in Medical Centre Cologne, Germany, she has been given a 95 per cent chance of remission or full remission and even a 50 per cent of being cured.

“The logical approach to beat cancer is improving immune function and not further suppressing it with chemotherapy and radiation, which are all immune-suppressive by themselves,” says Robert Gorter, MD, PhD from Germany.

“We have very good and well-documented results with quite a few patients living with metastatic sarcomas like Christina and who still went into more than 50 per cent or complete remission,” he explained to the family.

The parents have an option. Take Christina to Cologne, so she can fight her osteo sarcoma for a total of eight weeks, where specialists will treat Christina daily with hyperthermia, infusions for immune restoration and four to six vaccinations with dendritic cells at an academic teaching facility, functioning on the highest levels possible.

Christina will have to travel in approximately six weeks, in order to be treated.

“The doctors suggested chemotherapy here in three weeks, but they don’t want to do another surgery; we don’t want to leave the lesions in her lungs longer either,” Nayree Lagogiannis explains.

The cost of treatment and accommodation, not to mention everyday expenses, is up to $100,000. The cancer-stricken family is barely making ends meet, after a year of surgeries and chemo. They are therefore asking for the Greek Australian community’s help to possibly save Christina.

“Christina is very inspiring. She’e the bigger inspiration in my life,” her mother says.

“She’s such a fighter, she wants to stay. She gives us more courage to go on.”

For donations use account BSB: 063126 ACC: 10208055 or enter this link and fill out the donation form www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=nlagogiannis%40gma…