18 -year-old Cancer Survivor assisted researchers Her own rare disease , now go to Harvard

Rockefeller University Alan Simon laboratory Rockefeller University , where she conducted research fibrolamellar cancer , the same type she was diagnosed at age 12 . In 18 years, Alan Simon beat cancer and even co-author of her illness , which was published Thursday in the journal Science. Six years ago , Simon was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer called fibrolameller. Simon cancer was caught in time and she had surgery to remove the tumor , according to the Associated Press. But it was a lucky break. Because the disease affects only about 200 people in the United States each year, it is not well understood , making it difficult to detect and treat . Thus, while still in high school , Simon took it upon themselves to begin to explore the difference between these tumor cells and healthy liver tissue . Teen got help from his father , Sanford Simon, who runs a laboratory at Rockefeller University and a senior author of the study , as well as her children's surgeon , Michael LaQuaglia of Memorial Sloan Kettering. New York Genome Center also participated in the study. The researchers obtained 15 samples of tumors that were surgically removed from people with fibrolamellar cancer and their genomes sequenced . One mutation - which was present in all 15 patients - really popped . It was attended by a piece of DNA that " was broken and back , creating a mutant gene that has the potential to wreak havoc in the bodies of people with the gene , " according to a press release from Rockefeller University. Researchers are currently trying to understand how a broken gene causes tumors by testing how it changes human liver cells in the laboratory. The results are encouraging , but it's hardly the end of the mystery . According to the Wall Street Journal, La Quaglia says that " to find such a mutation does not mean , of course, causes cancer and more research should be done to establish its role." Simon, now cancer-free and finish her ​​senior year in high school, plans to attend Harvard in the fall, according to the WSJ.