Sadie was our daughter. At 15 she was diagnosed with a very malignant brain tumor. Despite radiation and chemotherapy the tumor continued to grow, and she passed away 13 months later.
No. To protect our privacy, we've left out almost all personal information about our family and Sadie's life outside of her cancer.
We aren't sure. Her MRIs suggested glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), but her biopsy was inconclusive. After a second and third opinion, her medical team concluded that she had either GBM or a supratentorial PNET. The biopsy seemed to favor PNET, and that's what they treated her for. Her post-treatment MRIs, and her ultimate outcome, seemed to indicate it was GBM after all.
Update:
new research since Sadie's death has defined a "GBM with PNET-like components" variant.
During Sadie's illness we scoured the Internet searching for information about brain tumors, treatments, and, once she was terminal, other people's final days. All the personal stories we found were very comforting to us: not because they offered us hope, but because they helped us understand what Sadie was going through. This site is our way of contributing to others walking this frightening path. We hope Sadie's site helps make the journey a little less lonely.