Christmas ‘Miracle’ for 6-Year-Old with Leukemia Who’s Now Thriving After T-cell Therapy Instead of Chemo

Christmas ‘Miracle’ for 6-Year-Old with Leukemia Who’s Now Thriving After T-cell Therapy Instead of Chemo

Leukemia patient Bryn Ailinger – Released by Roswell Park Cancer Center Christmas 2025 is better and brighter for one family whose daughter is on the mend from a previously untreatable form of childhood cancer. Christmas 2024 saw then-5-year-old Bryn Ailinger isolated in a child cancer ward, having been diagnosed with precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia which harbored a rare and aggressive mutation that rendered standard chemotherapies and surgeries ineffective. “You think the worst immediately,” said Justin Ailinger, Bryn’s father. “I didn’t know if I was going to have a daughter by the end of the year.” Bryn’s care team from the Roswell Park Oishei Children’s Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Program then presented the family with the option of the Nobel Prize-winning CAR T-cell cancer therapy as an option. Leukemia may have cost Bryn one Christmas, but thanks to this program, she gained many, many more. “I look at her, and I see a miracle,” said Meghan Higman, MD, PhD, a ped…