My mother at 81 died of the side effects of an experimental treatment for leukemia (in her case, the slow acting kind). It basically turned her body into a vegetable without affecting her mind. You might think I'm against cancer treatment research. Not at all.
The drug is now approved only for end stage patients (she wasn't close) and the major side effect (with great big warnings) is what happened to her. I've not done a lot of research but I understand that it is actually very effective FOR end stage patients, which is why it got approved.
I'm mad that she had to go through what she did, but now there ARE people who can benefit from the treatment knowing the risks and being able to evaluate them and gaining more than mere months of life.
If funds for research had been cut off, so that this treatment never got developed, SHE might have had a few more years. But how many others who HAVE reached the end stage would have died much earlier than now?
My mother at 81 died of the side effects of an experimental treatment for leukemia (in her case, the slow acting kind). It basically turned her body into a vegetable without affecting her mind. You might think I'm against cancer treatment research. Not at all.
The drug is now approved only for end stage patients (she wasn't close) and the major side effect (with great big warnings) is what happened to her. I've not done a lot of research but I understand that it is actually very effective FOR end stage patients, which is why it got approved.
I'm mad that she had to go through what she did, but now there ARE people who can benefit from the treatment knowing the risks and being able to evaluate them and gaining more than mere months of life.
If funds for research had been cut off, so that this treatment never got developed, SHE might have had a few more years. But how many others who HAVE reached the end stage would have died much earlier than now?