Laura Gipson; Delayed Cancer Surgery to Compete in Academic Decathlon

Laura Gipson, the San Diego County teenager who defied a staggering medical crisis to compete with her teammates in California’s 1997 Academic Decathlon, died at her home near Escondido on Monday.

She was 19 when she lost her 2 1/2-year battle with a rare brain tumor, the removal of which she postponed for a week to participate in the strenuous academic contest.

Gipson had glioblastoma multiform, the deadliest and fastest-growing type of brain cancer. Fifty percent of its victims die within a year, 99% within five years.

No one, certainly not Gipson’s teammates, would have blamed her for pulling out of the decathlon. But Gipson, an A student who dreamed of becoming a medical researcher, would not give up.

“I wanted to be there for the team,� she said. “I decided this wasn’t going to beat me.�

Gipson was in her senior year at Orange Glen High School in Escondido when she began experiencing dizzy spells and numbness, and finally a blackout while driving her younger sister Cassandra home from school. Her car hit a guardrail on a winding road near their home in rural Valley Center, about 25 minutes from Escondido, but neither one was injured.

The next week Gipson saw the family doctor. He ordered a blood test--and a brain scan.

Gipson was in the midst of studying for the decathlon, a grueling two-day competition involving top teams from high schools around the state. Her coach had declared the Orange Glen team her strongest ever. Gipson had hit the books with fervor, determined to earn at least one medal at the state meet.

On the day she heard the results of her medical tests, she dutifully went back to decathlon practice. She stood at the back of the room until coach Pat Boldt asked her if something was wrong.

Gipson shed no tears, just blurted it out: She had to have brain surgery.

A little more than a month before she was due to travel to Pomona to compete in the state finals, surgeons removed a third of the right frontal lobe of her brain. The pathology report confirmed the family’s darkest fears: She had a tumor, it was malignant and almost certainly fatal, with an end that would come sooner rather than later.

Gipson, who had an inquiring and analytical mind, demanded to be told the truth about her condition. “I really like to feel I have some control over everything in my life--especially since it’s my head,� she said.

So the doctors told her: Don’t make any long-range plans.

Within a few weeks, she knew a second operation would be necessary. It could leave her with weakness on her right side, but Gipson said she could live with that.

What she could not live with was missing the decathlon. She vowed not to let this “stupid thing that has decided to interfere with my life� make a waste of the year she had spent furiously studying geography, history, literature, science and math.

So she told her parents, Larry and Penny Gipson, and her doctors to postpone the surgery a week. She was already experiencing seizures, but, she told coach Boldt, “I am going to stay.�

Decathlon officials granted her special permission to have a friend accompany her to the exams, who could summon help if another seizure struck. On March 14, 1997, Gipson took her place beside her eight teammates at Cal Poly Pomona, the site of the state finals, and began a series of timed tests.

On the third day, a Sunday, came the awards ceremony. Gipson was not hopeful. She had completed all the exams and had no seizures, but her team had finished 14th out of 44 competitors. She told her teammates that she was sorry if her scores “weren’t that great.�

Then she heard her name called.

Gipson had won a silver medal for her essay, which had earned the second-highest score out of 400 competitors. The irony of her topic--time management--was not lost on anyone, least of all Gipson. She was shocked. Her mother and her coach flashed jubilant thumbs-up signs.

“For just a moment,� Penny Gipson said, “it was wonderful.�

Laura hung her medal on a mirror in the family dining room. A few days later, surgeons at UCLA Medical Center excised the rest of her right frontal lobe and all of the visible tumor.

She graduated from high school and enrolled at UC San Diego. But the tumor kept rebounding. She transferred to UCLA, where she signed up for a full load of classes and a clinical trial of CPT-11, a drug commonly used to treat colon cancer. That was followed by tamoxifen, a drug usually deployed against breast cancer, but nothing was beating back the tumor.

Last November, she tried another experimental drug, Temadol. In January, she had good news: The tumor had shrunk by 90%. She was well enough to travel to Maryland to testify before a Food and Drug Administration panel, urging federal approval of Temadol.

But in March, doctors discovered that a cyst had developed in her brain. When they operated to remove it, they found the tumor had grown at a fierce rate.

Gipson tried more unproven drugs, including thalidomide, until there were no more drugs to try. Doctors, understanding that the blond, blue-eyed teenager clung to hope, prescribed mild chemotherapy.

She spent her last weeks taking little trips around town. One of her last errands was to buy a Father’s Day present.

She slipped into a coma June 4. Last weekend, 100 friends visited to say their farewells. One read Gipson a poem the night before she died. It was called “I’m Free.�

A memorial service will be held today at 2 p.m. in the concert hall at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Contributions may be sent to the Laura L. Gipson Foundation for Brain Tumor Research, P.O. Box 2095, Valley Center, CA 92082, or to the Infinity Fund for Brain Cancer Research at UCLA, c/o Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, 710 Westwood Plaza, Suite 1-230, Los Angeles, CA 90015.