Three-year-old Josey Linsalata celebrated the end of her cancer treatment on November 5, surrounded by family, friends and her care team at a Houston hospital. Testing revealed a Wilms tumor during an illness in May; she subsequently underwent surgery and chemotherapy and is now cancer-free.
Josey's celebration took place at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, according to CW39 Houston. She received cheers and a certificate marking the milestone, capping months of treatment that began after a seemingly ordinary illness turned into something far more serious.
Josey's road to diagnosis started in May, when she developed a fever and belly pain after her sister contracted mononucleosis, the outlet reports. What might have looked like a routine childhood bug led to testing that revealed something else entirely: a Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer most commonly diagnosed in young children.
Surgery and Seven Rounds of Chemo
From there, Josey's treatment included surgery and seven rounds of chemotherapy, according to the hospital. Those months of medical care culminated in the celebration this month, where her family marked the occasion with a cookie cake bearing a fitting message: “BELL YEAH!”
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital said it wishes Josey and her family the very best as she begins this healthy new chapter, per the station's report. For a family that watched a feverish, achy toddler go through surgery and repeated rounds of chemotherapy, the celebration marked the close of an ordeal that stretched across much of the year.
A Disease With Improving Odds
Wilms tumor cases like Josey's have become increasingly survivable in recent decades. The National Cancer Institute notes that childhood cancer mortality decreased by more than 50% between 1975 and 2020, and that the five-year relative survival rate for children younger than 20 with Wilms tumor now stands at 93%, according to the National Cancer Institute. Separate research published in a 2021 study found that five-year survival for children diagnosed with the disease climbed from 75% in the late 1970s to 90% by the mid-to-late 2000s, as reported by a study in Pediatric Blood & Cancer. Those broader statistics reflect decades of medical progress, though they do not speak to any individual child's outlook.
For Josey's family, the numbers mattered less this month than the moment itself: a three-year-old, cancer-free, celebrating with the people who helped her get there.
