The online home of Will and Sara!
Posts tagged Cancer
A Very Merry Un-Birthday To You
01 year ago
Kjursten Is 12!
Birthdays have abounded lately… In late May I turned 30 and a week after that my mother turned 62 although she still manages to look decades younger than her real age. Our nephew just turned 2 years old a couple of weeks ago and we found a very cute (and probably annoying) toy and card to send him but didn’t get to actually visit him this year. My uncle Chip turned 62 and retired, and I think my other uncle Rick had a birthday too. One of my nieces is officially a tween. And we had birthdays for Will, his mom, his sister, and his brother. Am I missing anyone? Probably.
Adventures in Neurologists Peddling Pharmaceuticals
31 year ago
Tysabri : A picture is worth $6900!
My parents assured me that although they’ve gone to many MS events they had never been to a spectacle like this before.
Last night I trekked down to the basement of a branch of the AnMed hospital in Anderson, SC to attend an MS event my parents had alerted me to called Dialogue of Hope and Health. I can’t deny that I was hoping that the “hope” in the title of the event referred to the new oral medications soon to be available (at least in other countries) or perhaps stem cell developments. It turned out to be something between a sales pitch and damage control conducted by a local neurologist and a Tysabri sales rep.
Oral drugs to treat multiple sclerosis could become available in 2011 after promising results in two trials.
01 year ago
Interferon injections are more than unpleasant.
I am so glad I make a habit of reading BBC News daily as US news agencies frequently skim over important things in favor of the shocking or violent. Today they published a story about new oral multiple sclerosis treatments that are likely to be available in England in 2011. As someone whose liver does not particularly like Interferon and is afraid of the risk of death from Tysabri infusions this might be a godsend. Since interferons are not available as generics (they contain living organisms and are exempt from status that would let them ever become generic) this could open inexpensive and more successful treatment options to a host of people who have no option but to live with the effects of the disease untreated. The full article and link to it are pasted below, but here is the basic information you want:
- The oral drugs in question are Fingolimod and Cladribine
- The drugs are considerably more effective at reducing relapses than current available treatments
- The drugs may increase your chances of herpes and cancer