What is Isabella Strahan’s Brain Disease, Medulloblastoma?
Isabella, the 19-year-old daughter of Michael Strahan, has been battling medulloblastoma, a kind of brain tumor, for the previous two months. Medulloblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumor that mainly affects children. Headaches, nausea, and difficulties with coordination are typical symptoms. Depending on variables like age, tumor propagates, and genetic markers, treatment usually consists of surgical procedures, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
Isabella Strahan was a freshman at the University of Southern California when, according to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, where she is receiving treatment, an MRI scan in October revealed that she had medulloblastoma, a malignant and rapidly expanding brain tumor that grows in the cerebellum, the back part of the brain where movement and coordination are regulated.
Michael and Isabella Strahan discussed their choice to disclose Isabella’s health condition to the public in an interview that aired on “Good Morning America” on Thursday. They said that they felt that doing so, might assist other people.
Michael Strahan informed Roberts, “This is a matter that is so private that I didn’t know if she would want to share it.” “But her idea was, ‘I want to share it and I want to help others,’ and that goes into the essence of who she’s always been.”
Model Isabella Strahan told Roberts she does not want to “hide” her experience with cancer and recently started a campaign with Sephora. She had brain surgery in late October, recuperated for six weeks, and had radiation therapy. Soon, she will start a chemotherapy regimen under the supervision of Duke University doctors, where her twin sister Sophia is a freshman.
In addition to starting chemotherapy this week, she is teaming up with Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center to produce a YouTube series that will chronicle her journey.
Dr. David Ashley, a neuro-oncologist and the director of Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, who is supervising Isabella Strahan’s care, believes that in addition to giving others hope, her decision to share her journey could draw attention to the need for increased funding to develop better treatment options for brain tumors, especially for children.
“It’s an important moment in history because we now have the tools to make the difference,” Ashley stated on “GMA.” “The mechanism of these brain tumors is known. We are familiar with molecular biology. We simply require the funding to put novel treatments like targeted therapy and immunotherapies into practice that we could apply to them.”