It is in the normal course of events that as our advanced prostate cancer progresses we will eventually end up dying from the disease. There will come a time when our doctors will no longer have any additional treatments or tricks up their sleeve, or we will just decide that we are done and wish [...]
An AP medical writer, Mike Stobb, wrote an interesting and unusual article about a survey that was conducted asking if people would be willing to spend everything they have on aggressive treatments that might prolong their life. The survey concluded that blacks and other minorities with cancer are more likely than whites to say they [...]
The battle to make sure that Provenge is available nationally (in the United States) to all men who meet the FDA approval requirements is continuing. We have made great steps through the “noise” that the community has made to date. We have successfully reached, what I believe is, the final step in insuring that Provenge [...]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CME) decided to review their policies pertaining to paying for Provenge, which costs $93,000 per man. Since the hearings which were held a number of months ago, we have not heard any feedback. Despite this, most of the regions have been paying for the treatment, however there have [...]
Increasingly it has become obvious to me and to many other individuals that our current drug approval and development process has a basic flaw. If you go to research conferences you quickly learn that there is probably no magic bullet to stop any type of cancer, including advanced prostate cancer. Current drug development focuses on [...]