June 2, 2004

Meet Mauricio Munoz
Courageous Kids Ambassador from Willow Glen

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Mauricio Munoz is one of the American Cancer Society’s Courageous Kids Ambassadors this year. The 11-year-old, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in October of 2003, lights up when discussing his family and playing with his siblings. He loves to play roller hockey with his brother Ivan and to play soccer. Currently, he is at Stanford Hospital going through his latest round of chemotherapy for bone marrow work.

Neuroblastomas are tumors of the sympathetic nervous system. Current treatment may involve chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, bone marrow rescue and or innovative biological approaches. Some tumors can be cured by surgery alone, some require moderate chemo while others need more radical treatments involving surgery and extensive chemo and radiation. Radiation often is beneficial for local control but doctors are finding that innovative treatment with agents that induce differentiation or cell death, or that target neuroblastomas with antibodies, offer hope of cure with limited toxicity, according to the neuroblastoma Web site.

Mauricio, a shy, cute youngster, who attends the sixth grade at Willow Glen Middle School, began complaining of pain in his side and his back last fall. He then got a fever, but his pediatrician said he had the flu. His parents, Eli and Rosa Munoz, insisted the doctor run more tests because Mauricio is not a complainer. A biopsy showed a tumor. He was transferred to Kaiser Santa Clara. Since then he’s had six rounds of chemotherapy plus surgery in March to remove most of the tumor. And he continues to keep up with his homework when unable to attend school.

Mauricio has made friends with many of the children at Kaiser who also are in treatment. He’s provided advice to his fellow patients to, “keep strong, think positive, not negative.”

His life, is not always treatments and hospitals, though, for example the nurses and doctors take all the young cancer patients on an outing once a month. Most recently, they played miniature golf with Dr. Wong and the Kaiser Staff.

Mauricio also got a rare treat recently, that most of us will never get. After a San Jose Sharks game, he was invited to the hockey players’ locker room to meet his favorite player, Evgeni Nabakov.

In addition, Mauricio has lots of support. Part of a large family with many supportive friends, his parents had to put a sign on the door to prevent too many visitors.

Rosa Munoz feels Mauricio is special because he’s had lots of problems since he was little. He’s had a number of broken bones and once was hit by a car. But he’s beating the odds, she says, and is facing all challenges with determination; he won’t stop until he conquers the problem. He is persistent in everything and there’s no “impossible” for him.