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BRANTFORD, ONT. — The legal wrangling has ended, but debate about a young aboriginal girl’s cancer treatment is likely to continue unchecked after new revelations about her condition emerged Friday at an extraordinary court hearing.

The girl had been in remission from leukemia, but the cancer returned last month and she has resumed chemotherapy, seven months after rejecting it in favour of native remedies and other alternative care, her lawyer said.

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As the patient and her mother looked on, the judge who first ruled on the case in November then took the rare step of agreeing to change his decision at the request of lawyers involved in the affair.

The ruling controversially concluded the girl’s family had a constitutional right to choose traditional native medicine over conventional treatment for cancer. It was modified Friday to stress that a child’s best interests must always be paramount in such situations, though traditional treatments should still be respected.