How Washington Is Nixing a Cancer Cure

What if they found a cure for a cancer that afflicts half a million people, but a combination of stupid bureaucrats and greedy doctors kept patients from getting it?

It's the kind of scenario that seems like the province of conspiracy theorists or alternative-medicine wackos -- but is actually happening right now with a proven treatment for certain common types of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the sixth-most frequently occurring cancer in the United States.

I'm a bit biased on this one, though the treatment in question is not yet relevant to the rare subtype of lymphoma (mantle cell lymphoma) that I had in 2004. But even if I weren't in the lymphoma family, I would still be outraged by this situation. You can count the number of truly successful cancer treatments on one hand, and one of them is about to disappear.

Read the whole column on Newsweek.com.

Comments

[pinesoul]

Thank you Jonathon Alter. I too am a bit biased. I had Bexxar in May of this year.

To getoffmedz: There is not always a clear line between treatment and cure. This drug may be both for different people. That's not the issue.

[Ben Dixon]

What if they found a cure for a cancer that afflicts half a million people, but a combination of stupid bureaucrats and greedy doctors kept patients from getting it?

Strong accusations, where's your proof to back it up?

[getoffmedz]

There is huge money in treatments for cancer.

There is no money in prevention and cure.

Why push treatment? Hmmm?