I enjoy reading these drug information posts until I read the phase, “Men who have had surgery or radiation therapy do not qualify…” then my intellectual curiosity fades. Hope you’re doing well.
It may feel like they're shutting the door on a lot of patients, but there's another way of viewing this -- as precision medicine, which by definition benefits a narrow population. Only about 5% of prostate cancer patients can benefit from PARP inhibitors, for instance. We may as well welcome small victories as we await the bigger ones.
What continually depresses me is when I read the disclosure paragraphs following all journal articles about advances in drug treatments for PCa. Normally the authors are all consulting to the drug companies that may or may not be the subject of the journal article, and those drugs are being prescribed for treatment of their patients. Hmmm? The continual creep of backdoor capitalism into every reach of medicine is why Americans pay the most of any country in the world for their medical care. Mix in the third party payer corruption in Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA into this toxic brew along with the constant procrastination of new treatment approvals by government overseers being lobbied by vested interests protecting their monopolies and it’s no wonder mental health depression is just another ailment piled into PCa healthcare. It is very difficult to stay optimistic about anything dealing with PCa research and future treatments.
Hi Ben,
I enjoy reading these drug information posts until I read the phase, “Men who have had surgery or radiation therapy do not qualify…” then my intellectual curiosity fades. Hope you’re doing well.
Jeff
It may feel like they're shutting the door on a lot of patients, but there's another way of viewing this -- as precision medicine, which by definition benefits a narrow population. Only about 5% of prostate cancer patients can benefit from PARP inhibitors, for instance. We may as well welcome small victories as we await the bigger ones.
Hi Ben,
What continually depresses me is when I read the disclosure paragraphs following all journal articles about advances in drug treatments for PCa. Normally the authors are all consulting to the drug companies that may or may not be the subject of the journal article, and those drugs are being prescribed for treatment of their patients. Hmmm? The continual creep of backdoor capitalism into every reach of medicine is why Americans pay the most of any country in the world for their medical care. Mix in the third party payer corruption in Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA into this toxic brew along with the constant procrastination of new treatment approvals by government overseers being lobbied by vested interests protecting their monopolies and it’s no wonder mental health depression is just another ailment piled into PCa healthcare. It is very difficult to stay optimistic about anything dealing with PCa research and future treatments.