Beau Christensen's immunotherapy research

On April 26, 2021, high school spring football practice had started for rising senior Beau Christensen. This was his last spring football season as a high school player. He started spring with high emotions, as this was the beginning of the end for him and high school football. The week started like normal, shorts with uppers and no contact with his teammates. Five days later, players dressed in full pads and began full contact. Beau came home from practice complaining of not feeling well. As the days continued to pass his symptoms increased from fatigue, to concerns of dehydration and eventually to complaints of headaches and vision problems. One morning Beau woke up in the early morning hours with excruciating deep right eye pain along with nausea and vomiting. At that point he and his parents knew something just wasn’t right. He saw his pediatrician the next day and after an evaluation, he was instructed to get further evaluated from his ophthalmologist, an ENT, and a neurologist. The first appointment happened to be with his ophthalmologist. At 1:00pm on a Tuesday afternoon, Beau’s world would turn completely upside-down within a matter of hours. After an extensive evaluation completed by his ophthalmologist, he discovered that Beau had increased pressure on his cranial nerves along with increased pressure within the cranial space. We were instructed to go to the ER immediately for an MRI which showed a large brain tumor. Within hours of the MRI during the evening of May 25th, We were blessed that a personal friend and family physician Dr. Dean Hautamaki took control of this horrible situation. Beau was then airlifted to UF Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida where he was then admitted and under the care of Neurosurgeon, Dr. Jason Blatt. On May 27th, after further review and studies of his MRI report, Dr. Blatt performed a 10 hour resection of the tumor within his brain. Beau remained in the PICU for 11 days recovering from the initial cranial surgery as well as one additional surgery 7 days later to insert a permanent shunt. With the successful resection of his tumor, Beau’s treatment plan will consist of 3 rounds of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of radiation. Along with this treatment plan, Beau is fortunate enough to also be a candidate for an immunotherapy study. The University of Florida Research Department will develop a vaccine from a portion of Beau’s original tumor and Beau’s donated WBC and RBC. He will receive injections of the vaccine to fight off further growth of any possible future tumors. The total treatment plan should hopefully last 10-12 months. 

Beau’s journey started with great shock and an enormous amount of overwhelming sadness and heartbreak. We are a family full of positivity, hope, and tremendous faith. Thus far, all the stars have aligned for Beau. He has been blessed with the BEST of the BEST of physicians, nursing personnel, outpouring support from family and friends and our community, and most importantly our strong belief in our Lord and Savior! All prayers have been answered and he is a walking Miracle to this day! He is stronger than he ever thought he could possibly be. We are so blessed and so fortunate in so many ways. Without the medicine and research that we have today, Beau’s story could have been written so differently. When asked if we would consider a Go Fund me page, we were skeptical. With great thought and many conversations within our family, we agreed under one condition, that the funds raised be strictly for research. Without immunotherapy, Beau’s tumor has a greater chance of returning. We feel blessed and humbled for this opportunity for Beau’s survival. We want others to have the same opportunities. We want to pay it forward, and be a part of helping others to have the same opportunity to beat this horrible disease.

We are asking for your support to help raise money for the Researchers at the University of Florida’s Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, developing advanced personalized immunotherapy treatments for brain cancer. Your support will directly impact their efforts to help other brain tumor patients beat this disease. 

 

We would appreciate any donation you can make for such a great cause. We have also been approached by others that would generously match the final amount donated, so there is no amount to small, just give what you can. If you are not in a position to donate financially, please consider praying for those that are struggling with any life-threatening disease. It takes an army to defeat the odds and prayer is stronger than any financial amount.

We don’t really have the words to describe how the outpouring amount of love, support and prayers have felt over the last 7 weeks, but I’m quite certain you can imagine. You all have lifted us up when we needed it most, which is beautiful and priceless. We know that God hears EVERY SINGLE PRAYER! We are truly grateful for every kind wish and every prayer lifted up in Beau’s name so once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Our family will never be able to repay this and we will forever be grateful and humbled. 

Much love and appreciation-

The Christensen Family

We would also like to thank all of the doctors who helped Beau along the way:
Dr. Dean Hautamaki
Dr. Michael Orwasky
Dr. Jason Blatt
Dr. Sridharan Gururangan
Dr. Robert Amdur
Dr. Duane Mitchell 
Dr. Robert Weiss

Coach Mark Cristiani and Athletic Trainer Brian Vogler are also running an Ultra Marathon on behalf of Beau and his cause. Please feel free to go under this link to read about that https://gofund.me/174ab703