Infant battling rare eye cancer getting controversial treatment - Philadelphia News, Weather and Sports from WTXF FOX 29

One-year-old Loghan Kaiser is battling a disease most of us have never heard of.

"Retinoblastoma," said Erica Hammons, Loghan's mom.  "They had to explain it to me because [I had] never heard of anything like that."

It's a rare cancer that effects the retina -- the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the inner eye.  His mother and father, Sean Kaiser, knew something was wrong with Loghan very early on.

"You're holding your baby.  You want to make the eye contact.  He didn't make the eye contact," Hammons explained.

"He kind of always would look to the side, and as he got from a month closer to two months, his eyes started to jiggle kind of," Kaiser said.  "I instinctively thought he was blind."

Retinoblastoma can cause blindness, but that's what everyone is trying to prevent.

First doctors tried traditional chemotherapy -- powerful medication pumped into Loghan's body through an IV.  For two joy filled months the tumors went away.
 
"Exactly four weeks after the second month eye exam, his third month, they came back aggressive. They came back like really bad," said Hammons.

Realizing the chemo wasn't working and radiation was too risky for a baby, Loghan's parents resorted to an experimental treatment that delivers chemotherapy right to the retina.

"They take the tube through the groin and put it through a main artery all the way up, and then that's when they spray the chemo in ... each eyeball," Hammons told us.

It's called intra-arterial chemotherapy.  It's risky and controversial, but the payoff could be huge.

"The doctors told me that this is, they call it a cure. They've got almost a 100-percent success rate with this for not only killing the cancer, but saving the eyes and keeping some sort of vision," said Kaiser.

Loghan has to travel to New York for numerous treatments.  So far he's had three and doctors are optimistic.

The family does not have to pay for the procedures, but for anyone who wants to help donate to help with the additional medical expenses, there is an Loghan Kaiser fundraising account at Chase Bank.  You can also visit www.helpcurelogi.com.