Francesca Arnaudo's nurses call her their “miracle child.” After three years of treatment at UC Davis Cancer Center, the tenacious little girl beat two cancers: first osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, then acute myeloid leukemia, a white blood cell malignancy.

It all started with a minor T-ball mishap. Francesca, then 6 years old, fell during a routine practice, landing on her right arm. The next morning the arm was swollen and hurt to move. Concerned about a possible sprain or fracture, Francesca's mother took her to the family doctor in their hometown near Stockton. The family doctor sent her to the local hospital for an X-ray. The X-ray revealed a large tumor on the little girl's right humerus, the long bone extending from shoulder to elbow. By the end of the day, Francesca had seen a Stockton orthopaedist and had a referral to UC Davis Cancer Center.

At UC Davis, a team of top specialists quickly assembled to develop a treatment plan for the little girl. Over the next three years, the team grew to include an orthopedic oncologist, three orthopedic surgeons, two surgical oncologists, four pediatric oncologists, a radiation oncologist, a cadre of highly trained nurses, a stem-cell transplant team, radiation therapists and clinical trial coordinators.

Following five months of chemotherapy to shrink the bone tumor, Francesca underwent an ambitious five-hour operation to remove the tumor and save her arm. Surgeons removed the diseased segment of the little girl's right humerus, leaving the elbow joint and bones in the lower arm intact. A titanium prosthesis replaced the excised bone. A second, three-hour operation about a year later fixed the implant more firmly in place.

Shortly afterward, Francesca was diagnosed with another cancer, acute myeloid leukemia. About one in every 100 children develop this form of leukemia after undergoing chemotherapy. The Arnaudos rented an apartment across the street from UC Davis Children's Hospital so the family could stay together during Francesca's bone marrow transplant, a procedure that required a 41-day stay in the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

Francesca underwent high-dose chemotherapy and total body irradiation to destroy her diseased blood-producing cells, then received a transfusion of donor stem cells that would grow into cells capable of making healthy blood. No one in Francesca's family was a suitable match to donate marrow stem cells, but a match was quickly found through a national cord bank search of donated umbilical cord tissue.

Today Francesca's leukemia is in remission. There is no sign of the original bone cancer. And her arm has healed nicely.

From playing baseball in the back yard with older brother Dino to working on art projects, Francesca is putting the arm to use.

“She draws, draws, draws,” says her mother, Mary Arnaudo. “Throughout everything, her therapy has been drawing. It's what's kept her going.”

Francesca's doctors are all proud owners of the young artist's drawings. Some bear simple inscriptions. To Theodore Zwerdling, the pediatric oncologist who coordinated and oversaw her care, Francesca wrote this: “Dr. Zwerdling, Thank you for being my doctor. Love, Francesca.”

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