On a sunny Saturday in June, Nicholas Chase celebrated his fifth birthday in grand --- if not exhausting --- style.  With a Star Wars theme and nearly a dozen friends and family members in attendance, he romped through games and blew out his candles.

Which is pretty amazing, considering that there was a time fewer than three years ago when doctors feared Nicholas would never survive even his next birthday.

When Nicholas was just two years old, his parents. Suzi and Brad Chase, took him to the doctor for what they thought might be a kidney infection.  Doctors told them their precious toddler had a mass in his abdomen the size of a grapefruit and, even worse, that it was a particularly aggressive type of cancerous tumor called neuroblastoma --- one that is often deadly and requires intensive therapy.

"When he was diagnosed, we weren't given a lot of hope," recalls Suzi Chase.  But after months of intensive chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and finally a bone marrow transplant, Nicholas has emerged as a high-spirited child who remains in remission.

"He's just like any other kid," says Suzi Chase.  "Of course, we watch him pretty closely, but he goes to preschool and next year it's on to kindergarten."

Suzi says the entire family feels fortunate that they had access to such a highly regarded and innovative research team, where pediatric oncologists and the University of Arizona Department of Pediatrics can provide the latest therapies to treat childhood cancer.

In addition, pediatric oncologist Dr. Luke Whitesell is studying, in particular, neuroblastoma to develop better ways to treat the disease.  He is trying to genetically re-engineer cancer cells to prevent cancer from multiplying.

"I'm just grateful that if we had to go through this, it was here in Tucson, because a lot is being learned about --- and done to treat --- this disease," says Suzi Chase.

Adapted from Tucson Lifestyle
December 1998
Portrait Photos by David Fox