tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20108635.post6947430671899523491..comments2023-10-01T10:18:00.072-04:00Comments on Plastic Surgery 101: D.C. Court of Appeals limits access to experimental drugsDr. Rob Oliver Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09059882318849767896noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20108635.post-68382727924216785062007-08-11T09:50:00.000-04:002007-08-11T09:50:00.000-04:00I agree with the dilemma you pose. However, this i...I agree with the dilemma you pose. However, this is going to come down to what's the greatest good of society (ie. better information on the efficacy/safety of treatments)trumping the proposed right of an individual to go "off the grid" for experimental therapy.<BR/><BR/>There already is a mechanism we have for testing these experimental drugs, the case here involved someone who was not qualified for the trial. While it may seem capricious and patronizing, the rules we have re. this come from centuries of medical experiments with snake-oil and folk-medicine proffered to patients.<BR/><BR/>Again, you just have to look at the hundred of drugs abandoned late in clinical trials to see how rare some of these medications make dramatic differences in cancer treatment.<BR/><BR/>It's still kind of a truism that if you can't surgically remove any solid cancer that's contained locally (not luekemia/lymphoma types), you can't cure a cancer. Hopefully some of these immuno therapies and directed treatments will rewrite that bookDr. Rob Oliver Jr.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09059882318849767896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20108635.post-16268670832592543122007-08-09T12:29:00.000-04:002007-08-09T12:29:00.000-04:00Everything that you says makes sense, and in the a...Everything that you says makes sense, and in the abstract I completely agree with you. However, having cancer yourself changes things. I know that were I in the situation where the available well had run dry, I'd do whatever I could to get my hands on a drug that I thought might help. <BR/><BR/>Imagine how difficult it would be to be an oncologist who has to tell a dying young patient that they can't try a promising new drug, even if you, the doc, believes it might save them. <BR/><BR/>It was only a few years ago that herceptin was approved by the FDA, and in fact, it's still not approved in Europe. At what point would you think it appropriate to make it available to advanced BC patients? Not everyone that a drug could help is qualified or accepted by trials. <BR/><BR/>Perhaps there's a middle ground of providing drugs that look especially promising to terminally ill patients. Or, perhaps the trial system should be changed to have a special category for high risk patients, and to make inclusion of these patients automatic and at the expense of something other than the drug companies.<BR/><BR/>All rational aside, denying hope to the dying just seems cruel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com