Willow Amanda Pearl Lanto

During her brief 5 years, Willow has shown love and been loved by so many. She has left her mark on all those who knew her, knew of her and will be terribly missed.

Forever Mommy's Baby and Daddy's Booger Bean.

What is DIPG?

DIPG is a type of tumor that starts in the brain stem, the part of the brain just above the back of the neck and connected to the spine. The brain stem controls breathing, heart rate and the nerves and muscles that help us see, hear, walk, talk and eat. These tumors are called gliomas because they grow from glial cells, a type of supportive cell in the brain.

What are the stages of DIPG?

DIPG falls into the Glioma staging system, so they can be classified according to the four stages below based on how the cells look under the microscope. The grades are from the least severe to the most severe.

Low Grade: Grade I or II means that the tumor cells are the closest to normal.

High Grade: Grade III or IV means that these are the most aggressive tumors.

The main issue with DIPG is that most of these tumors are not classified by grade because surgery to obtain tissue by biopsy or to remove the tumor is not safe because of the location of the tumor. When these tumors are biopsied, they are usually grade III or grade IV tumors, which tend to behave very aggressively. Most of the tumors are diagnosed by their appearance on MRI.

How common is DIPG?

About 10% to 20% of all childhood brain tumors are DIPG or brainstem gliomas.

They are more common in children between the ages of 4 and 11 years, but can occur at any age in childhood. Though more rare, they can also occur in adults.

Survival Rate 1% and that 1% is maybe 5 Years of life.

DIPG Leaves kids mentally intact but steals essential functions such as Vision, Chewing, Swallowing, Walking and Breathing.

DIPG has had no advancements in research in the last 60 years.

DIPG only receines 0.088% of all Cancer Funding.

30 Kids a year in Canada are Diagnosed with DIPG.