When Its Not News!

But you think it is. Yesterday I was cruising through the Health section of cnn.com, reading an article here, and another there. At the bottom of each article were links to more articles. I was reading titles, clicking, and reading some more.

I always look at the cancer one, in case they have discovered a cure and I missed it while sleeping or something. The one I saw yesterday was called "Chemotherapy Game-Changer for Stage IV Cancer". Immediately intrigued, I clicked the link and landed here.

Its looks like a lovely article on chemotherapy and stage IV cancer patients. ITS NOT! Its a paid ad or blog post or whatever.

A week or so ago, I was also cruising around the health section of cnn.com and found this article on inflammation which I found barely interesting and biased. It was titled "Chronic Inflammation is the Fuse for Cancer" and it also was an ad. And from the same website, Envita.com, which is the website for a bunch of medical centers.

I felt duped. I found a link on cnn.com and thought I was reading articles, not ads. I did some more poking around and found that it seems there are always more ads linked in among the true articles.

The third article down on the left is titled 'The Secret to Sleeping Throughout the Night". Its basically an ad as well. You will note the source - Simple Skin Care.

I don't think CNN is trying to scam us. I think the stores at the bottom are found by search engines and compiled there - which is why when you go back to the article, chances are the list is different. Its the advertisers who are trying to fool the search engines into thinking they are news and not a load of propaganda.

So the moral of the story is basically 'buyer beware'. Just because you think its news doesn't mean it is.

Looking for new news

I receive several billion regular updates on advances in the treatment of breast cancer, thyroid cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and back pain, among other ailments. Every so often something pops up and grabs my attention or even the headlines on new advances that show some real significance.

But they always speak of small studies and that more research is needed. And then we never seem to hear the results of anything only that more research is needed. And nothing seems to ever help me positively. All I have gotten so far is to learn that I need to stay on Femara an extra five years. But no miracle cure.

After six years of this obsession with cancer research, I feel like there is not much new. Maybe its the lack of the significant breakthroughs that impact me positively. Maybe its frustration with my health's continued downhill slide.

There has been so much promising research but we never seem to see the results. A significant part of this I think is do we remember five years ago when they said this looks good because of this but it needs more research. Now the research is done but we can't connect it because its been too long.

There should be away to easily connect all of this so we can see the long term progress.

I am way behind

Yesterday was National Cancer Survivors Day. How did I miss it? I should get to celebrate twice or something. But I wish it didn't have the S word in the title. How about National People Living With Cancer Day?

Also, this weekend was the ASCO conference. I usually read what is announced each day and now have to catch up.

Here are a few details so far:

• Extending Tamoxifen to ten years from five years reduces risk of reccurence by 15%
• Sorafenib Shows Benefit in Radioactive Iodine-Refractory Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
• Surveillance in Breast Cancer Survivors: First Do No Harm - which discusses over testing after treatment ends.
  
• Innovations in Breast Cancer Drug Development: The Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer Workshop 

There is lots more to read about and I'm sure there will be some big announcements. I have gotten through a few of the sessions so far. The two sources to read are:

• First the news summaries listed here: http://chicago2013.asco.org/daily-news/latest?field_cancer_topics_tid=All&field_daily_news_article_categor_tid=All
• Next read the ASCO Daily News which are at the very bottom left of this page: http://chicago2013.asco.org/daily-news

So I will start reading them myself and see what I think about them. I am sure there will be many exciting new topics discussed.

New Breast Cancer Drug but at What Cost

The FDA approved Kadcyla for late stage breast cancer treatment. This is a good thing. Its about time.  And it will save many women's lives.

But I have a real problem with the financials behind it. A month's treatment costs $9800 or $117,600 annually, which apparently is about twice the costs of Herceptin. These costs will mostly be covered by insurance - and we wonder why insurance premiums are going up.

Immunogen, who developed it, expects to receive a $10.5 million pay off plus royalties of 3-5% of the expected world wide sales of $2 billion (with a b). To my tiny math brain, that means they get $60,000,000 (that's 60 million if you are having problems with all the zeros).

It will be marketed by Genentech who I assume will take in the rest of the profit after coming up with snazzy packaging and fancy ads. I have no idea what Genetech's manufacturing and promotional costs will be but I am sure their profits will exceed that of Immunogen.

But that's okay because the insurance companies will probably cover most of it - which is why our medical costs keep increasing so rapidly.

Going back to when I blogged about pricing and how it is determined by marketing people, I am sure the whopping price tag was set by marketers (those evil people) who wanted it to be high end, represent a last chance for women to extend their lives, and if its expensive it must work really, really, really well.

But at least it is finally available for the women who need it who will gladly pay any price to extend their lives. Call me cynical, but maybe I am.