Ashya King to have cancer treatment with 70% chance of survival, medics say
Five-year-old has undergone MRI and CT scans ahead of planned proton beam treatment in Prague
Ashya King arriving for pre-cancer treatment examinations in Prague. Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP
Five-year-old Ashya King will next week begin pioneering cancer treatment with a 70% chance of survival, medics at a specialist Czech clinic said.
The
brain tumour patient successfully underwent MRI and CT scans on Tuesday
before the planned proton beam treatment in Prague next Monday.
His
father, Brett, said Ashya was a "bit traumatised" after the prolonged
legal battle that saw him taken from Southampton to Spain before
arriving in Prague on Monday.
Ashya hit the headlines when his
parents removed him from Southampton general hospital against the advice
of doctors, leading to an international manhunt that saw the Kings imprisoned in Madrid for 72 hours. The pair were released amid a public outcry, while Ashya received treatment in Malaga's Materno Infantil hospital.
Speaking
as Ashya left Prague's Proton Therapy Centre on a stretcher clutching a
teddy bear, Brett said: "The good news was that there's no visible
signs that he has any regrowth of cancer. We'll find out in the next
couple of days, with the spinal tap, if there's microscopic cancer in
his fluid. But we're hoping not."
Jan Stary, head of the Prague
Motol hospital children's haematology and oncology clinic, where Ashya
is undergoing tests, said he could begin to receive proton beam therapy
on Monday. He estimated that Ashya had a 70% chance of survival if the
treatment was effective and said it would last six weeks.
A
spokeswoman for Prague's Proton Therapy Centre said Ashya underwent MRI
and CT scans on Tuesday. A special mask was also prepared for him, she
said.
The proton treatment is being combined with a course of
chemotherapy which Aysha is receiving in the city's Motol University
hospital, where he is spending the evenings.
Doctors have
estimated that Ashya's proton therapy will cost up to £70,000. The Kings
have already begun the process of selling their Malaga home to fund the
treatment, however the children's charity Kids'n'Cancer UK has pledged to contribute to the cost alongside about £40,000 in online donations
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