dmag

Dance Marathon Alumni Group

Jared Minikus is the son of Steve and Dianna Minikus and the little brother of Cody. He is six years old and from Denver, Iowa. Jared's symptoms began with swelling of the eyes in the spring of 2007. On August 9, 2007, Jared was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a cancer of the bone marrow.

Bone marrow is where blood cells are made. With AML, the bone marrow makes large numbers of immature white blood cells called blasts, which crowd out the normal cells of the bone marrow. They may flood the bloodstream and invade vital organs such as the brain, testes, ovaries, or skin. These cancerous AML cells can sometimes form a solid tumor called a chloroma.

Nearly 500 children in the US are diagnosed with AML every year. Half of these young people are cured and remain in remission for five years with standard therapy, but with any cancer, you are always facing the odds. The overall goal is to find a treatment to increase these odds.

The course of treatment that Jared is receiving is standard chemotherapy. Because the chemo is at a very high level, the treatment completely knocks his immune system out. As a result, we spend most of our time in Iowa City at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Our goal is to get Jared and other children into remission and to keep them there. Many children with AML do need bone marrow transplants, but we are hoping that Jared will not need one. Ideally, Jared's chemotherapy will be over sometime in the early spring of 2008. If he does not stay in remission, at that time he will also need to have a bone marrow transplant.

Our family recognizes our good fortune to be receiving care in Iowa City at the Children's Hospital. The doctors and staff are wonderful and make us feel a little more comfortable with Jared's treatment. We have also received great support from Dance Marathon. Members of DM have helped us emotionally and financially by providing meals for the pediatric families. Jared just loves his DM friends and looks forward to their visits when we are here in the hospital. In fact, he is already practicing his dance moves for the big dance in February. We will hope and pray for the best for Jared and all of the children who have to endure this rough journey.

Sincerely,