B.C. Children Hospital’s endocrinologist Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos says the treatment isn’t a cure, but delaying the progression of diabetes can significantly reduce severe complications
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Prince George teen Jack Thiessen loves the outdoors — from hiking and fishing to long camping trips with his family in the wilderness.
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He’s used to having to prepare a little differently for the backcountry than most families. His younger brother and dad have Type 1 diabetes so they’ve always needed to pack enough supplies and medication for any situation.
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The Thiessens have a family history on both sides of the disease, so it was upsetting but not surprising for Jack, 16, to learn that his blood sugar was starting to fluctuate, indicating he would likely progress to Stage 3 of the disease.
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“I’m very outdoorsy … and so yeah it was kind of scary,” he said. “It would definitely change my life a lot. When we all go camping or fishing it’s always something you have to worry about. You always have to be prepared in case something goes wrong.”
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Jack had already been part of a trial to monitor youth whose siblings have Type 1 diabetes, so when Health Canada recently approved a new drug that has been shown to delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes, he was an ideal candidate for the treatment.
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The medication, called teplizumab, is a treatment that targets the immune system in patients with early stage Type 1 diabetes, slowing the process that destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
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He’s one of only two youth in Canada so far to be provided with the medication daily over a two-week period by intravenous infusions at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. The youth were treated with premedication to prevent nausea, inflammation and fever. They were then monitored throughout the infusion of the drug and afterwards.
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Jack said he didn’t have any side-effects and described the overall experience at Ronald McDonald House and B.C. Children’s as positive.
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With the help of Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos, a pediatric endocrinologist at B.C. Children’s, the family received funding for the treatment on compassionate grounds. The drug isn’t yet publicly funded, and the treatment option is restricted to patients identified as part of a research study.
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“Having to manage something so complex, like Type 1 diabetes, where you have to balance all these things like food and physical activity and the unpredictability and all these injections. It’s just a huge stress. So anything that can be done to delay needing to do that during a very important developmental stage, the teenage years, it’s really important,” she said.
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Although not a cure, teplizumab can postpone the need for insulin and lowers the risk of severe complications, said Panagiotopoulos. About 40 to 60 per cent of children with Type 1 diabetes can develop a life-threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis or DKA.
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“With DKA, the severely high blood sugars and insulin deficiency lead to dehydration, breathing difficulties, a reduced level of consciousness, and an increased risk of brain and kidney injury requiring urgent hospitalization,“ she said.
