Valley Stream Navy recruit gets new brain cancer treatment

It seemed like Nicholas Raimondo, 24, of Valley Stream, was on track for his dream job, a career in the Navy, when he graduated from boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill., in January. But the severe headaches he experienced during training worried his girlfriend, Ashley Bruno, 21, a fellow South High School graduate, and she insisted that he see a doctor or she would tell his parents that something was wrong.

The diagnosis was grave — a rare, fast-growing brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme. Raimondo had surgery two days later, then again on March 8. His doctors were able to remove most of the tumor, and laid out his treatment plan: a Phase II clinical trial of an experimental treatment. One of 20 patients in the trial, Raimondo would have the drug Avastin delivered through his arteries instead of his veins, allowing the drug to directly target the tumor through the channels that feed it.

Raimondo was placed on medical leave and transferred to a base in Connecticut so he could continue his treatment. He couldn’t fly in his condition, so his parents, Theresa and Anthony, picked him up in Illinois and drove him home. He received the first dose of the experimental treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan early this month, and he has continued treatment at the Northwell Health facility in Lake Success. He is expected to begin radiation next week, according to his mother.

The new treatment is possible because of advances in catheter technology and better drugs, according to Dr. John Boockvar, director of the Brain Tumor Center at Lenox Hill Hospital. He said that Raimondo’s condition is good, and the treatment dramatically improves his prognosis. “We expect his survival to be measured in years rather than months,” he said.

Boockvar is a Hewlett native whose father was a physician in the Valley Stream area. “It’s always good to help families from where your heart is close to,” he said.