A three-and-a-half-year old Mumbai girl has become the first patient in the country to be treated with dinutuximab immunotherapy after she was diagnosed with a rare type of nerve cell cancer. Diya Gala, born to a couple from Andheri, received this immunotherapy on a compassionate basis.

Dr Prashant Hiwarkar, a bone marrow transplant physician at Wadia Hospital, said, “She came to us with non-resolving abdominal pain. An ultrasound detected a mass in her abdomen and a number of tests revealed she had metastatic neuroblastoma. It is a cancer that starts in a very early form of nerve cells and occurs in young children.” He said this type of cancer begins in immature nerve tissue present in the adrenal glands, neck, chest, or spinal cord. “The disease is mainly seen in children less than five years old, and the symptoms are bone pain and a lump in the abdomen area, neck or chest.” Said Dr. Hiwarkar.