TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Even with no hair on her head, Ylaria Carrasco-Cazares is beautiful.

Witness her upturned, cherubic smile, her glowing eyes that seem older and wiser than her years, and her temporarily bald head that makes you want to reach out and place your hand on her brow like an old-fashioned country doctor.

More than two years after being diagnosed with high-risk stage IV neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, Ylaria's scans are now clear.

It's worth saying again: There are no signs of cancer on Ylaria's latest medical tests.

Her parents want to believe in miracles -- they'd love to set off skyrockets in celebration -- but they don't dare, even as they savor the incredible news.

"You couldn't really wrap your brain around it," said Belen Carrasco, Ylaria's mom.

Ylaria's dad, Regino Cazares, said he went numb upon hearing the news.

"When the doctor told us he didn't see anything ... I had to see the scan for myself," Regino said. "It was just amazing, but it doesn't sink in right away."

Ylaria's story has been followed closely by hundreds, maybe thousands of Bakersfield residents and others across the country through Mrs. Carrasco's blog.

And the couple say they have been touched countless times by the many offers of prayer and financial assistance they've received from California to the East Coast.

The couple's reluctance to claim victory over the cancer comes from two years of gut-wrenching experience. They know the high-risk form of this disease is difficult to cure even with the most intensive therapies available.

Relapse is common, and many of those who do survive experience serious long-term effects from the treatment.

Even Ylaria is now using a tiny walker because one of her legs has been injured, possibly as a result of the many rounds of chemo- and radiation therapy she has received.

"We haven't heard about a lot of long-term survivors," Belen said. "But we know some are out there."

So for now, the husband and wife are just thankful to be back in their Bakersfield home with 4-year-old Ylaria and her two sisters, Yoly, 2, and Belen, 8.

The past two years have forced Regino to take a leave from his teaching position. It has required frequent and expensive plane trips to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for treatment not available anywhere else.

But they feel it has been worth the struggle and sacrifice.

"This now puts us in a whole new place when it comes to attacking this disease," Mrs. Carrasco wrote in her blog.

Dr. Nai-Kong Cheung, head of the neuroblastoma program at Sloan-Kettering "was stumped," she wrote.

"'I don't even know what to do next, I'm so excited' is what he said," she wrote.

But word came this week that a vaccine may become available now that Ylaria's scans are clear.

The family hopes the experimental treatment Ylaria received will help many other neuroblastoma patients.

Mrs. Carrasco said she believes Ylaria was the first in the world to receive natural killer cells -- in this case, donated by her -- combined with 3F8 antibodies derived from mice. The antibodies carry the natural killer cells directly to the cancer cells, she said. An official from Sloan-Kettering said confidentiality laws prevented her from discussing Ylaria's treatment.

As Ylaria climbed on her dad's shoulders and played happily with her toys on the family's living room floor Thursday evening, it became apparent the family was enjoying a rare and wonderful chance to be normal.

"Do you want to go back to the Ronald McDonald House in New York?" Ylaria was asked.

"No!" she answered with a big grin on her face.

Then she went back to her toys.