My cousin testified before the FDA oncology advisory board on Tuesday about her experience taking Avastin. This is a tragedy, to deny the only drug that is keeping a 51 year old woman alive.
image from p.3 of today’s NYTimes business section
You have to wonder, are the advisory panel members so rational in all their behavior and choices? Are they always so razor-like in their oncology decisions?
Unlikely.
These experts have an agenda, here: It’s to be perceived as scientists, even when their knowledge is imperfect and exceptions to the rule stand right in front of their eyes.
But clinical medicine, as I know it, calls for flexibility, and tailoring of treatment to each case, and caring about each person, including those who fall at the tail, or in this case better end, of any Kaplan-Meier survival curve.
What would Larry Kramer do about this, I’ve been thinking: He’d scream, really
See more No Room For Emotion or Exceptions to the Rule (on Avastin)