An eight-year-old boy who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour will become the first person from the UK to undergo treatment trials for the rare cancer in America. Rudi Abbot was diagnosed with a grade four pineoblastoma in August 2020 after suffering from severe headaches, tiredness and pain in his leg.
The rare and aggressive cancer accounts for fewer than one in 100 of all brain tumours, according to Cancer Research UK. Rudi underwent two 10-hour surgeries to try to remove the tumour – which was the size of a small avocado – but medics could only get rid of 70 per cent of the mass.
He then had four months of gruelling chemotherapy at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, Edinburgh, as well as six weeks of proton therapy in Germany. The treatments initially proved successful - but in February this year an MRI scan revealed the tumour had returned.
