In Brazil The case of an economist who lost his three children in a period of 5 years due to a disease that he himself inherited from them was revealed. This is Régis Feitosa, 52, whose story is turning the continent around.
Done told BBC News Brazil that in 2016 he and his children were diagnosed with the Li–Fraumeni syndromea rare disorder that increases the risk of developing many types of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
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“The results showed that I had a genetic alteration that unfortunately was also transmitted to my children and that it promotes the appearance of cancer (…) In four and a half years I lost all my children… I am as much a victim as they are, ”he commented.
Before his first cancer diagnosis, Regis says he and his children were healthy and his family had no history of health problems. In 2009 when his eldest daughter, Anna Carolina Feitosa, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
For years he struggled with this disease, but in 2021 they found a tumor in his brain and he died on November 19 at the age of 25.
In 2017, her youngest daughter, Beatriz Feitosa, was also diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, so she underwent a bone marrow transplant. However, the cancer was so aggressive that the girl herself passed away on June 24, 2018 at the age of 10.
Then, Pedro, his middle son, at the age of 17 was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a common cancer that originates in the bones.. The young man was treated several times, however, he developed brain cancer in 2019 and died at the age of 22 on November 30, 2020.
This disease was inherited from his father
Régis Feitosa told the national media that he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2009. Learning of this situation, she had her children undergo genetic testing.
When the results came back, the family discovered that they had Lifraumeni syndrome. “The results showed that I had a genetic alteration that unfortunately was also transmitted to my children and that it increases the appearance of cancer,” she explained.
For his part, Régis learned in 2021 that he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a disease in which malignant cells, cancer, form in the lymphatic system. So far, the man is being treated for chronic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“I am also a victim like them”
The economist told the national media that he never felt guilty for having the syndrome or for passing it on to his children. “My children said that I was as much a victim as they were,” she commented.
He also stated that all the health problems his family faced have changed his way of seeing life. “Today my vision is that you have to live intensely, with maximum joy. My son said a very coherent phrase: no one can measure the pain of the other. I do not think there is a major or minor problem, the fact is that we cannot measure the pain of the other, ”he said.