Naia: Finding Relief Through Red Light Therapy

Before chemotherapy even began, Naia’s family learned about an unexpected tool that would help ease one of treatment’s most difficult side effects: red light therapy.

Naia was 12 years old when she came down with a cold and decided to see her primary doctor. That led to meeting with an ear, nose and throat specialist to check on her one tonsil that had grown abnormally large.

After having a tonsillectomy to remove the tissue, our specialists sent her tissue off to be tested, which ultimately resulted in an unexpected diagnosis: Burkitt lymphoma, a rare and fast-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

From there, Naia and her family were referred to Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders to begin chemotherapy. Before treatment, Naia’s family attended a chemo class offered by our care team that walks through all the things that happen during treatment and the side effects, including oral mucositis.

Fighting side effects of cancer treatment

Oral mucositis comes with painful mouth sores caused by chemotherapy and radiation. These sores can make eating and drinking difficult, increase the risk of infection and sometimes extend hospital stays. During their class, pediatric oncology nurse Jen Lamb, MSN, RN, explained a recent evidence-based project that used photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy, or red light therapy, inside the mouth as a way to ease or even eliminate oral mucositis.

“They sat us down early on and explained that these mouth sores are worse than anything you’ve ever experienced,” says Melissa, Naia’s mom. “As a parent, you latch onto anything that can help them feel better.”

Lamb explained that red light therapy wasn’t being used as an official patient treatment quite yet, so Naia’s family took matters into their own hands. They hopped online and ordered a popsicle-like red light device for Naia to use during her treatment. Throughout chemotherapy, she used the device for a few minutes at a time with cold therapy in between.

“I didn’t enjoy doing it, but it gave me something to focus on,” Naia says. “I didn’t have a lot of control during that time, so it created a routine and a structured schedule.”

For some children, mouth sores are more than just painful. They can extend treatment time, increase infection risk and lead to more time in the hospital, as mouth sores must be fully healed before chemotherapy can continue.

Miraculously, this was not the case for Naia. She zoomed through treatment — actually finishing several weeks ahead of schedule — with only two sores.

“As she kept going through treatment, her doctor was shocked and had never seen anyone on her protocol go as smoothly,” Melissa says. “We recognized that this protocol was the one thing Naia was doing differently. She is a sample size of one, but we learned this is something everyone needs.”

Providing red light therapy to help others

Naia’s family was serious when they said red light therapy is something everyone needs. When they learned that Lamb had created a program designed to give more kids access to PBM, they began fundraising and donating to utilize the device that changed the course of Naia’s cancer journey.

“The staff does so much,” Melissa says. “We gravitated to something that would help them do their jobs better — and to take away children’s pain — there was no question.”

To date, the program has delivered 4,063 treatments at Children’s Colorado and helped kids just like Naia manage pain and decrease their time spent in the hospital.

Today, Naia is over a year posttreatment and is looking forward to block schedules in high school and continuing her active lifestyle through hiking, biking and swimming. Naia is thrilled she could use her experience to further research into red light therapy for others.