Talia Battles Cancer and More With the Help of Her Hometown Care Team

Four years after treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma, Talia is still connected to her Stanford pediatric oncology team in Walnut Creek

Five years after the end of cancer treatment, pediatric oncologists start to use a powerful word: cured.

Thankfully for 8-year-old Talia, almost four years have passed since the end of her treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that develops in soft tissue, and she’s still cancer-free. Talia loves to play basketball and has a lot of energy, according to her mom, Lori.

But the effects of her cancer treatment still linger for Talia, highlighting the importance of long-term care for kids with cancer. Talia is able to receive this care closer to home, thanks to a partnership that brings Stanford pediatric oncologists to John Muir Health’s Walnut Creek Medical Center. Stanford’s pediatric oncology team is there to support Talia throughout her entire cancer journey and beyond.

Talia was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in late 2021, when she was 4 years old. Lori first noticed something was amiss when Talia’s elbow looked very swollen, as if it had been pulled out of its socket. Lori called a family member who is a doctor, who recommended watching and waiting for a few days. When the swelling worsened, Talia and her family went to the emergency department, where they drew blood and did an MRI.

“The doctor came in and said, ‘We’re going to refer you to oncology,’” Lori said. “Just hearing that word was like ‘What?’ Getting that diagnosis, you think there’s no way I could go through this, but you surprise yourself and you do.”

Within a few days, Talia had swelling around her neck and armpit too. Her arm doubled in size, and Lori had to cut Talia’s shirts off because they couldn’t stretch over her swollen left side.

“We were panicking, but the oncologists and nurses were reassuring—they said when it grows this fast, usually with treatment it will go down this fast,” Lori said.

Talia’s pediatric oncology care team laid out a daunting treatment plan, with almost a year of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation therapy in the middle. Being able to receive most of this care close to home in the East Bay has been a big help for Talia and her family.

“That has been such a blessing,” Lori said. “We know we’re in good hands. Just knowing I can get her to the hospital quickly definitely feels good.”

For example, the partnership between Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and John Muir Health meant that Talia could get all of her chemotherapy infusions close to home.

“She could get standard things like labs, transfusions, and chemotherapy closer to home but still have access to more advanced care, such as radiation, at Packard Children’s,” said Jay Balagtas, MD, a pediatric oncologist who treated Talia. “The partnership between John Muir Health and Stanford made it easier to move between the two institutions as needed.”

As part of the partnership, patients who receive chemotherapy and other treatments from Stanford experts in Walnut Creek also have access to Stanford experts in Palo Alto, from pioneers of innovative treatments like stem cell transplantation and CAR T-cell therapy to world-renowned pediatric surgical oncologists like Gregory Tiao, MD.

Lori and Talia drove down to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto for Talia’s radiation therapy. Some weekends, they were able to come home so that Talia could visit her two older sisters, two German shepherds, and five chickens.

The radiation therapy was the hardest part of Talia’s treatment, leaving her with extremely painful burns that made her skin peel and led to infections. Talia’s skin was so fragile that she would start bleeding if her arm bumped up against the rest of her body, so Lori applied special bandages to keep her skin safe. Still, Talia has a lot of scarring from the effects of the radiation therapy.

After everything Talia endured during treatment, she got the best birthday present: She finished treatment during the week of her fifth birthday and was declared cancer-free.

But even though Talia’s treatment was over, the effects still lingered, and survivorship care helped her navigate those bumps. First, she had bouts of extreme constipation for two years.

Now she is battling lymphedema, chronic swelling of her arm caused by buildup of lymph fluid, because her lymphatic system was damaged by the cancer. She’s getting a special compression sleeve that hopefully will prevent the lymphedema from worsening.

“She just wants to be a normal kid—she doesn’t want to wear a sleeve,” Lori said. “She feels like she’s over it, she doesn’t have cancer anymore.”

She’s also had several bouts of cellulitis, an infection of the deeper layers of skin and tissue underneath. Talia is more susceptible to infections because her lymph nodes were damaged by the radiation therapy and can’t clear out bacteria effectively.

During one of Talia’s hospital stays to treat the cellulitis, she found herself in the same room where she received her first chemotherapy infusion.

“We still know some of the nurses, and they all say, ‘Talia, look at you, you’re growing so much,’” Lori said. “It feels like home, it feels like family.”

Talia will continue to be cared for by the Stanford Children’s pediatric oncology team at John Muir Health for at least another six years.

“For the first five years after treatment, we’re monitoring to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned,” said Karen Chao, MD, a pediatric oncologist who cares for Talia. “Then for the next five years, we’re monitoring for the secondary effects of the chemo and radiation.”

Dr. Chao emphasized the benefit of having the same high-quality Stanford pediatric oncology care available closer to home for East Bay families.

“It’s just so much more convenient to have a team that you trust, that you know is giving you excellent care, but you’re not traveling across the Bay Area,” she said. “We have a smaller team, so you get to know us and we all get to know you. And from a safety standpoint, for kids who are receiving cancer treatment and have weakened immune systems, if they develop a fever, it’s really not safe for them to drive a long distance to be seen. We can see them quickly and get them started on antibiotics.”

Talia is still going in every four months for scans to make sure her cancer hasn’t returned. Over time, if she remains cancer-free, the scans will get less frequent and then stop.

Meanwhile, Talia is looking forward to going to a concert featuring her favorite singer, Forrest Frank, and turning 9 in September.

“She’s a bundle of energy and a really sweet, positive kid,” said Dr. Chao. “She’s old enough to remember a lot of what she went through, but I don’t think it has impacted this joie de vivre that she has. It hasn’t slowed her down.”

Lori wants to give other families hope that they can get through this incredibly stressful time.

“Just take it one day at a time,” she said. “It feels completely overwhelming and your mind thinks the worst. Don’t go there, don’t try to see everything at once, just go one step at a time, one minute at a time, whatever you need to do to get through the next hour or day and be present. It makes you realize this is all the time we have, so make the most of it.”

Talia agrees. When asked what she would tell other kids fighting cancer, Talia had a simple and powerful message: “Stay strong.”

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