While battling an aggressive pediatric stomach cancer, doctors began fearing chemotherapy was becoming too toxic for a 3-year-old boy from Martha’s Vineyard. Instead, they turned to a new clinical trial in Boston in an effort to save his life.
William, or Billy, Fournier, was diagnosed in May 2023 with hepatoblastoma, a common type of liver cancer that affects children under the age of 3, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Week after week, Billy underwent blood and platelet transfusions, sedated scans and rounds of chemotherapy with his parents by his side.
In the year since his diagnosis, his parents Adam and Ryann Fournier took action while Billy’s uncle Tad Gold set up a GoFundMe to financially support the couple and Billy’s 7-year-old brother Freeman — “Pookie,” as Billy calls him — as they spend more time with their son in and out of Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and away from the Cape.
In November, Billy completed his 12th round of chemotherapy with no signs of cancer in his stomach. Christmas gave the family a chance to be together, to be happy and celebrate, with Billy’s hair growing back.
Three days later, Billy said his stomach hurt again.
Tests showed the tumor was back, 7 centimeters by 7 centimeters, Ryann Fournier told MassLive in January, with several 1-centimeter tumors throughout his stomach and one by his spleen.
But after so many rounds of chemotherapy, doctors began fearing it was hurting more than it was helping. They had to find another option.
“The newest regimens of chemotherapy have had little to no impact on knocking the cancer down,” Gold wrote in an update on the GoFundMe posted on May 11. “He has reached high toxicity and dangerous levels with the one mix that has worked. His doctors no longer feel comfortable continuing these rounds of treatment due to the negative impact on his vital organs. Hopes of a response with chemotherapy have dwindled.”
Another surgery was scheduled for April 4, Gold told MassLive on Thursday.
The procedure took 12-hours and involved a liver resection and an abdomen debulking, an operation that decreases the amount of cancer in the body, according to City of Hope’s website. Of the cancers in his stomach, 20 nodules and tumors were removed.
The family remained thankful to their “gifted surgeon, Dr. Alex Cuenca, and his team” for their ability to “save all of his major organs and remove as much of the disease as they could find,” Gold wrote.
But the surgery wasn’t enough.
“Currently, we’re in a race against this rapidly growing tumor to find a cure,” the update continued.
Now, the family is clinging to the hope offered by a clinical trial.
“Our next hope comes in the form of an immunotherapy research study, a phase 1/2 clinical trial called ET140203, which is sponsored by Eureka Therapeutics and supported by the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. The study takes place at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute,” the update stated.
In an Instagram post on May 24, Ryann Fournier wrote that Billy was “breaking history as the first solid tumor pediatric patient to receive this amount of cells.”
During these trials, T cells from Billy’s bloodstream were collected through a process called leukapheresis, Gold wrote. The cells are then engineered to “recognize specific proteins found on the surface of the tumor cells” before they return to the bloodstream and kill the tumor cells, he added. The family will likely remain in the hospital for two months.
And there’s still no promise of a cure.
“Beyond this study, his doctors have leveled up with us that his recovery is unlikely,” the 3-year-old’s uncle wrote.
Eleven days after the update, the T cells were reintroduced on May 22 and Billy’s “doing well since then,” Gold said in a short message to MassLive on Thursday.
The family continues to be hopeful, constantly working to try to find the one thing that will save Billy’s life.
“However [the doctors] are not giving up and neither are we,” Gold wrote. “We are sad. We are scared. We are holding on tightly to our time together. We remain hopeful. We are open to any ideas or contacts and if you would like to share them please reach out to us.”
The GoFundMe page upped its goal to $250,000 and has so far received $205,415.
