Politics As Usual
Shining a Light on Power and Policy
Tom Shine covers congressional politics for ABC News.
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Begging for a Drug on YouTube
March 25, 2008 8:23 AM
Sixty-two-year-old Connie Loughman lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. Like actor Patrick Swayze she has pancreatic cancer. Unlike Swayze she does not have the fame that automatically leads to saturated news coverage. So according to BALTIMORE SUN reporter Tricia Bishop, Connie's three daughters have launched a very public campaign to get their mother some help. They have put a video of her plight, along with pictures of Swayze, on YouTube, and started a WEB SITE.
What do they want? They want to get an experimental cancer drug being tested by a small biotech firm in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The firm is GenVec Inc. and their drug is called TNFerade. According to reporter Bishop, the family has offered to PAY for the drug and has agreed to release GenVec from any liability. The Sun article says that due to Connie Loughman's participation in an earlier clinical trial and chemotherapy treatments she recently received to control a tumor on her pancreas she is NOT eligible for GenVec's ongoing TNFerade clinical trial. Company executives say they cannot help until they get more clinical trial information. But the family thinks TNFerade is a "CURE" and that worries GenVec officials who told the paper that the drug currently extends life about four months. "We've never used the word cure..we're talking about months, not years."
For Connie Loughman and her daughters the possibility of four more months is better than what they face now.
March 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4)
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My husband had lung cancer and if there was a drug that could have prolonged his life for a few months - we would have tried anything.
Due to a doctors non-care of my husband, he passed away way too soon.
Posted by: Jill | Mar 25, 2008 8:53:56 AM
Once again it just goes to show that pharmaceutical companies only care about themselves and their investors. Why should people be denied medical care because its not economically feasible? As a nation we have a long ways to go with improving our health-care system. Hopefully making this story public will help the Loughman’s get the treatment that they seek.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 26, 2008 3:20:37 PM
It is really sad that more money is not spent on research to find a cure for pacreatic cancer. The high fatality rate needs to reach top politicians in order to save the senseless loss of close to 30,000 americans every year. PanCan does a tremendous job...but unlike breast cancer, pancreatic cancer does not have top-of-mind awareness. It is equally sad that more people do not meet requirements for clinical trials. My wife was stage three..too late for surgery and too early for clinical trials..even though we would have traded anything for more time together, the fact remains all the money in the world and all the drugs won't make a difference without a cure.
Posted by: Frankie | Apr 14, 2008 10:47:24 PM
this drug in clinical trials is not a cure. It is also designed to target specific tumors in specific areas, and as I understand it, this woman's cancer is all over her body. To target the cancer in enough strength in all the places where she has it would undoubtedly kill her. Jill should note this is not a pharmaceutical company, but a small biotech lab, and if they killed her then Jill would be screaming about how a big drug company killed a poor woman. The first rule of medicine is "first do no harm". Clinical trials of anything are VERY chancy and very dangerous. Nothing is going to cure pancreatic cancer for now, buying time becomes futile very quickly. And at what price??
Posted by: Sandy | May 7, 2008 6:56:46 PM
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