ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLLEEN HILL
For many patients, the impact of research can take years. But sometimes, the benefit is almost immediate. That was the case for Corey Hill.
In the fall of 2019, 13-year-old Corey Hill played for a travel baseball team. Every once in a while, he would feel out of breath for no clear reason. His pediatrician suspected seasonal allergies, and by spring an allergist confirmed he was allergic to “everything,” but inhalers and antihistamines weren’t helping. His mom, Colleen, a retired nurse, knew something was still off.
As the 2020 summer baseball season heated up, Corey’s episodes became more frequent and more severe. During a tournament in July, he struggled to breathe while watching his teammates win from the bench. Colleen took him straight from the tournament to the emergency room at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and asked for a chest X-ray.
Colleen remembers that the emergency department was surprisingly quiet that day. “When I mentioned that to the ER doctor, he said, ‘You’re right. But everybody who’s here really needs to be here.’ He led me down the hall to an empty exam room. And he broke the news that Corey’s X-ray and CT scan showed that he probably had Hodgkin lymphoma.”
Corey was admitted to the hospital that night. His parents gave him the bad news the next morning, as he had slept through his mom’s meeting with the oncologist. After just a few moments, Corey composed himself and said, “Ok. It is what it is. What’s next?”
During that first admission, the team confirmed the suspected diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma. Additional scans showed that Corey’s left lung was full of tumors. His shortness of breath had been caused by cancerous lymph nodes compressing his trachea, closing off the airway to one lung.
A few days later, Corey and his parents met with Dr. Sharon Castellino, a pediatric oncologist who was also the Children’s Oncology Group Study Chair for a study called S1826. Dr. Castellino explained that in S1826, doctors would add an experimental drug called nivolumab to chemotherapy to see if it would more effectively treat Stage 3 or 4 classic Hodgkin lymphoma than standard treatment for the disease. (You can read more about this study and its remarkable results here.) Dr. Castellino asked the Hills to think about it and to come back with questions. Corey needed to begin treatment within a few days.
A family with strong faith, the Hills prayed for Corey’s health and for guidance. Colleen consulted one of her own physicians, who felt optimistic about nivolumab based on his experience treating Hodgkin’s patients. They decided to enroll Corey in the trial. He was assigned to receive the chemotherapy plus nivolumab combination. Twelve days from his first visit to the ER, Corey was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to begin treatment.
A few days after finishing his first round of treatment, Corey developed a fever and painful, water balloon-sized swelling above both kneecaps. He was readmitted to the hospital, where doctors drained the fluid from his knees. While he was in the hospital, doctors ordered a chest X-ray to see how his cancer was responding to the treatment.
“A few hours after the X-ray, one of the oncologists came to Corey’s room and said, ‘I have to show you this.’ He held up the picture of Corey’s original chest X-ray, showing a lung full of tumors, next to the picture of the X-ray they had just taken. They were night and day. The oncologist himself was shocked.” Less than a week after starting chemotherapy with nivolumab, there was a dramatic reduction in the volume of lymphoma in Corey’s left lung. “Just two weeks earlier, they told me I might die,” Corey said. “When I saw those X-rays side by side, I thought, ‘Alright, do whatever you want, as long as it’s working.'”
Remarkably, the pain that Corey experienced after the first round of treatment did not recur. The remainder of his treatment was done outpatient in the infusion clinic without any additional nights in the hospital. Corey experienced two or three days of extreme fatigue after each infusion, and everything he ate tasted sour and bitter. Overall, side effects from the treatment were manageable, and he stayed on the trial.
Corey reports that his health is now much better. Once the fatigue from treatment passed, Corey felt better. Curious, he hopped on the treadmill just two weeks after ringing the bell. “I ran a mile in 15 minutes without stopping, which was so great. Before we knew what was wrong, I couldn’t even jog from the dugout to the first base line without getting winded. After 6 months of treatment, I was weak, but I already felt better than I had in more than a year.”
Corey didn’t play baseball in high school, but he did pick up golf. “My grandpa introduced me to it, and I just loved it. It felt great to be exercising again.” Corey also says that having cancer, as difficult as it was, has changed his outlook for the better. “I have a much more positive mindset. I’m happier. I know who my real friends are. I don’t let little disappointments bother me. The sun’s still going to rise, and I’m still going to wake up, and the day’s going to start again.”
So many childhood cancer patients still await a breakthrough like nivolumab. COG researchers strive every day to help more kids, teens, and young adults like Corey lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Philanthropic support of COG turns findings into futures, fueling discovery until every child gets the chance to see the sun rise again.