ROCHELLE – It has been nearly eight months since Tyler Lent and his family got the news that he had been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a rare form of bone marrow cancer.
In January, doctors discovered the cancer had progressed into leukemia of the bone, which is extremely rare in children. Leukemia generally occurs within the blood, but in certain rare cases, can occur within the bone marrow.
“From what the doctors said was most of the time the condition occurs in older people, like over 55, it is hardly ever in kids. They said the number was like one in a million,” said Jessica Bays, Tyler’s aunt.
After receiving the diagnosis, the first step was to test to see if the cancer were genetic, so that Tyler might possibly receive a bone marrow transplant from one of his two siblings. The test came back negative, so physicians then had to test the siblings to determine who carried the closest gene. Even though they are biological siblings, it is not guaranteed to be a perfect match. The older sister came back as a 50 percent match and the youngest sister came back as a perfect 100 percent match.
After learning the younger sibling was a match, a chemotherapy treatment began. Lent received three rounds of chemotherapy, with each round lasting six days after which his body was given four weeks to recover before receiving another round of chemo.
“Me and my family were freaking out wondering why they would wait so long because the cancer cells can grow back,” Bays said. “But with the chemo it actually goes in his IV and it is so slow moving it actually takes a week for it to start working, and gives his body and his organs time to recover.”

The first and second rounds of chemotherapy were unsuccessful of ridding all the cancer and it wasn’t until two weeks ago that the test results from the third round of chemo came back, indicating he was officially cancer free. While the chemotherapy killed the cancer that was inside of Lent, it also killed necessary functions of his body, including his immune system and many of his cells. This is where the 100 percent match from his sister comes into play.
By using the stem cells from his sister and injecting them into Lent, his body will be allowed to recover back to good health. This is not an easy process, but one that was crucial in helping Lent heal. His youngest sister, Brooklyn, was given injections every day for an entire week to help thicken her blood and double her cells. She then received a port into the main vein in her neck and was hooked up to a machine called the strainer.
“What they do is they hook up this machine to her and they pull her blood out, because in your blood is your red blood cells, white blood cells and your platelets. It then strains out her stem cells which are then injected into Tyler to get him back to where he needs to be,” explained Bays.
The straining process took a total of six and a half hours, and Lent is currently moving back and forth between Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald house in Chicago. Hospital staff are monitoring him multiple times a day and giving him anti-rejection medication to help his body accept the stem cells that he received.
Some of his favorite activities are playing with Legos, playing his Nintendo Switch and playing Minecraft. If everything goes according to plan, his family is hoping he will be home by Christmas.
While this whole process has been very hard on Tyler and his family, his mother could not have asked for more support from the community.
“I am beyond grateful for the love and support from everyone in the community, to give me the opportunity to be here for my son when he needs me the most,” expressed Angela Lent.