Melanoma treatment called revolutionary

[LongTomH]

Source: SFGate

Thirteen years after federal regulators last approved a new drug to treat advanced melanoma, the Food & Drug Administration has given the green light to two revolutionary drugs in the past five months to treat the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Researchers say the developments make this an exciting time for those who see the possibility for controlling a disease that today is diagnosed in about 68,000 Americans annually and kills more than 8,700 people in this country each year.

"A year or two ago, melanoma treatment wasn't like it is in this moment," said Dr. Adil Daud, director of UCSF's Melanoma Program.

Zelboraf, approved Wednesday, attacks a genetic mutation found in about half of melanoma patients, inhibiting the disease's ability to spread. The drug, which comes in a pill, was developed by Berkeley's Plexxicon and is being marketed by South San Francisco's Genentech and Daiichi Sankyo.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/20/MN261KPPRC.DTL

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I lost my dad to melanoma, so I welcome any advance in treating this disease. The problems are: 1) neither treatment is effective for all patients, and 2) they're expensive. Zelboraf is expected to cost about $56,000 for a 6-month course of treatment.

I just wish we had a national health care plan that could cover the cost of these treatments, without leaving the patient's family in bankruptcy. Such a plan should also be able to negotiate with pharma companies to control the costs of treatment.

[xchrom]

1. As a survivor of skin cancer treatments - this sounds wonderful. Nt

[gateley]

2. When I had melanoma in 1989, they either "got it all" or it got you.

Once it was in your bloodstream, you were a goner. This is exciting news!

[WheelWalker]

9. ;

Blessings, friend.

[gateley]

12. Awww, I knew that semi-colon came from you.

:hug:

[Snotcicles]

3. I think if we fully funded publicly, medical research and political election,

it would pay it would pay for itself in the first two weeks.

[FLAprogressive]

11. +1

[Scuba]

24. + Another

[iverglas]

4. I lost my dad to melanoma too, 2003

Metastasized to bones and all major organs by the time he had symptoms -- no original site ever found so likely not skin.

The eye is another site besides skin where it can develop. In his case, it was apparently internal.

My brother had a stage I melanoma on his skin six months later, successfully removed. He didn't follow up on the proposed genetic screening tests. When my sister was diagnosed with stage III colorectal cancer five years after that (at 42, lifelong nonsmoking vegetarian) she did have the tests done, and there was found to be no genetic factor. (And 18 months of surgeries, chemo and radiation later, she was pronounced good to go.) So all I got from my dad's genes was all the hereditary cardiovascular stuff. ;)

My dad was "lucky". He died of an asymptomatic, undiagnosed quadruple coronary artery blockage six weeks after the melanoma diagnosis, rather than spend the next weeks to months dying in pain as he would have done. Metastasis to the bones is a very bad and painful fate.

I've actually told his story several times here at DU. We're in Canada. Throughout his illness, we paid for hospital parking ... and at the very end, after he was delivered 30 miles by ambulance to my sister's home for his last days and set up with a hospital bed and morphine pump and all the lip moisteners and so on we needed, I had to pay $25 for an Ativan prescription, to spare him anxious consciousness, because the seniors' drug plan didn't cover the sublingual form prescribed.

His three medical specialists (oncologist, internist, orthopaedic surgeon), 6 weeks in hospital, xrays, bone scans, the MRI he would have had but for his pacemaker, the hip surgery he would have had for pain relief days before he died except that his failing heart became evident during pre-surgery screening (and we then took him home) ... all were at no cost to us.

I can only imagine what those six weeks would have been like if we had had to think about payment at the same time. And hope that the neighbours have that burden lifted some day soon.

[LongTomH]

5. Thank you for sharing this!

When my dad died in 1978, the insurance company actually paid enough that he died without leaving any debts. And the doctors actually spent time with him. My aunt told me that one doctor came out of his room crying after seeing him.

Things have really gone downhill in the States since then!

And thanks again for sharing your experience and your wishes that our burdens will be lifted!:hug:

[No Elephants]

23. For a doctor to cry, your father must have been a wonderful person.

I don't mean doctors are heartless. I mean they train themselves to hold it together.

[LongTomH]

25. Thanks! Yes, he was!

[mike_c]

7. wish I could rec your response....

Yup, the last thing we want here is Canadian health care. USA! USA! USA!

[iverglas]

10. thank you too guys

You reminded me I hadn't rec-ed the OP. ;)

My dad was in Florida when he became ill, and didn't let us know the extent of the problem until he flew home at the end of January 2003. We learned in the spring from his neighbour that he'd been essentially incapacitated for a few weeks, after probably breaking a bone in his hip but not seeking care, and that was hard to find out.

He'd been spending winters there for a few years in a trailer, as my mum and he had decided, in their fifth decade of marriage, to spend 10 years separating, getting back together, ... which they'd done that summer, then separated in the fall. All the kids stayed very close to both of them and they got back together when he came home. My sister picked him up at the airport in Toronto and took him directly to the ER closest to her home, but had to leave him after a while because she had little kids. So when he figured he'd been there long enough waiting for his appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon a few days later to be confirmed, he started kicking up a stink. He had to leave, his daughter was the only family he had there (true, the rest of us live in other cities ... my mum lives six blocks from my sister), her partner was out of town, she couldn't be driving 30 miles in the middle of the night to get him, etc. etc. So at that moment, my mum walked into the room. Oh, who is this? says the doc. Um, that would be my wife, says my dad. She took him home and was by his bed for the next six weeks.

Anyhow, my point, and I did have one. That was going to be my dad's last winter in Florida, anyhow. He couldn't stand it anymore -- surrounded by Republicans and NRA ball caps. We'd set him up with an online email account before his last trip, and he'd go to the library and answer our messages every couple of days. The funny coincidence is that my brother and I both sent him the joke I'll put below -- my dad was a huge fan of Abbott and Costello and frequently asked who was on first. He printed out copies and, as a friendly gesture, gave them to some of his neighbours in the trailer park. ;)

My brother and I then performed it at the memorial gathering of friends and family we had in our old home town a few weeks after his death. So -- my dad is with you all in spirit too!

I kind of dedicated my share of the march on the US Embassy in March 2003, a few days after he died, to my dad. It was pouring rain and we were knee-deep in frozen slush, so my steamed-up glasses weren't too noticeable.


Hu's on First

By James Sherman
(We take you now to the Oval Office.)

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?




To absent dads! :toast:

[Divernan]

13. Thanks for the loving memories & the funny joke.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

28. Your dad sounds wonderful

Thanks for sharing the joke.

I've inherited my dad's faulty health genes as well...but it was worth it because I inherited his sense of humour and good liberal traits.

To dads..both the absent ones and the ones still with us! :toast:

[emilyg]

18. I lost a favorite

doctor. His did spread. Thank you for sharing.

[iverglas]

19. strange how that happens

My sister (an extremely informed and involved patient) was very fond of the oncologist who treated her. She (the doctor) died of cancer this year. :-(

[XemaSab]

21. That's really rough

It runs in my family too. :(

[Selatius]

22. Under the US system, you probably would've ended up dropping $200,000 just for those six weeks.

We ration our health care according to ability to pay, and it's an unfair system.

It's the American way. :sarcasm:

[musette_sf]

6. K&R

[Orrex]

8. Wonderful news! K/R!

[goforit]

14. pharmco is being nice to us? You've got to be kidding?

A cure???
Will DRACO for viruses come out for real??
Will any cure for cancer come out???
For Real???
A cure for diabetes????
For phucking real????

[airplaneman]

15. Revolutionary

I will refuse treatment before I will leave my wife destitute finacially. I do not find these "Designer Drugs" that the pharms are going after (25% of all new drugs) as beneficial for society. The insurance companies will not cover most of them and if your one of the 80% of the population with only 7% of the income this is not really any hope at all unless you find it acceptable to obliterate all the wealth and income you have.
-Airplane

[NashVegas]

27. Shhhhhhhh ...

[Historic NY]

16. Wonderful news....I've lost a couple friends to melanoma...

I myself had a bout with skin cancer thankfully its was a melanoma. It was very strange and unsettling back in the 70's.

[SoapBox]

17. K & R

[XemaSab]

20. Melanoma: The White Man's Burden

n/t

[LongTomH]

26. Thanks for all the great responses, gang!

I added this post to my journal, not because of my content, after all it was just a repost of a news story; but, for the great comments you gave.