"Fox Sports' Jay Glazer reports that prior to undergoing recent neck surgery, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning flew to Europe for stem-cell therapy that's used overseas but not yet in the United States. Earlier this year, Fortune reported that prior to his liver transplant, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took an unpublicized flight to Switzerland to undergo an unusual radiological treatment which was not available in the U.S. Some Americans are willing to go abroad to seek what they can't find at home in hopes of improving — or saving — their lives, and health providers are eager to respond. 'It moves fast, this industry,' said the director of Medical Tours International in 2007. 'They think, 'Look at all these sick, rich patients.''"
Desperate people do desperate things. The more money you have, the more you can entertain the desperation (and people can take advantage of it). If either of the treatments actually helped the respective conditions, than his is, indeed, news. Otherwise, it is not.
I know that athletes are doing this more frequently and it is indeed having results. I wouldn't come even close to classifying Peyton Manning as desperate. More like able.
"If either of the treatments actually helped the respective conditions, than his is, indeed, news. Otherwise, it is not."
do you apply the same criteria to, eg, FDA-approved "cancer business" treatments?
I was under the impression that stem-cell is a proven treatment that's saving lives, with still plenty of room to grow.
Examples:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Health/...ry?id=11308383
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8576493.stm
The US should be leading the pack here, but alas, it seems that you have to head to Europe for that kind of treatment.
US "Christian" Taleban assholes are re ing/blocking stem cell research, pandered to by enabling Repugs.
Why don't they GAF about fertilized embryos, aka "humans", discarded by fertility clinics?
Actually, I don't even think it has to do with embryonic cells, which are also banned in Germany, a country that's a leader in stem cell research and therapy.
The problem seem to be with this:
Still, it’s possible that even though RSI is doing what many other doctors routinely do (develop a new therapy for use in their own practice) that the federal government could try to bring them to court. The FDA seems to have taken the stance that all stem cells (whether used autologously or not) are drugs. As such, they would need FDA approval, and would likely only be developed by large pharmaceutical companies.
From here
If this would have been the other way around we would have had the darrins , wc, jacksommerset's of the world proclaiming that this is more proof that socialized medicine/ Obamacare doesn't work..blah,blah,blah
When you have the money you can go wherever you want too for treatment...
This might be another reason:
Athersys Secures Stem Cell Patents and Stock Swells
Although it looks like their EU patents are not stopping progress there.
The only thing desperate about Peyton Manning is your claim that he is desperate.
More info on the FDA's position and why people fly overseas for stem cell therapy:
http://www.marymeetsdolly.com/blog/i...reatments.html
Capitalists/investors as patent trolls buy up IP from universities, research groups, with the intention extorting $Bs from sick people.
iow, s bag ethics of profit-driven "death panels" and "just how the free market finds the best solution" (to enrich the capitalists, no matter what costs others incur).
Rich people going to other countries to get treatment that is controversial, experimental, or illegal in the US?
Shocking
I think it's pretty shocking... kinda like middle-class american families buying their meds from Canada whenever possible.
Lots of regs here, that's true.
Am I supposed to be shocked by this or something? American medicine has always leaned towards the conservative... We had the know-how and knowledge to do skin grafts from the Nazi's after WW2, but we wouldn't use it until the Korean War because of ethical concerns with how the medical knowledge was acquired (Experiments on unwilling living humans).
There are some Euro countries with much more lax ethical standards (not necessarily Nazi level, but you and I would think twice about it), not to mention different medical liability laws that allow for small sovereign states to progress with medical technology and techniques much more quickly than in the US.
Those super rich Americans can afford to take risks and are gambling that just because something is less tested, new and has magically awesome results, that it won't have other side effects that may have been addressed with proper rigorous the FDA approval process...
"American medicine has always leaned towards the conservative"
bull , in the last few decades, the leaning has been above all raking in the dough, doctors, organizations, device mfrs, and above all BigPharma.
FDA's primary role is not to protect Human-Americans but to be police goons for protecting and increasing the profits of the medical establishment, which has compromised FDA fatally.
FDA approval is "tested"? BigPharma and device mfrs have paid $10Bs over the past couple decades to "settle" lawsuits for deaths and maiming.
It's a treatment for metastatic disease usually although it can be used to acheive local control in primary cases where the tumor tends to be resistant to EBRT. ONe can think of it as a targeted systemic radiotherapy modality, although that description can be a bit misleading.
Here is a link to an abstract for one of many American studies:
http://www.redjournal.org/article/S0...018-2/abstract
In the case of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer (which Jobs had resected in 2004), short range beta emitters (usually Y-90 or Lu-177) are attached to a hormone (octreotide) which deliveres its payload at the receptor sites. Being quite familiar with the treatment I can tell you if this is a recurrence, that is what he recieved in Basel. Unfortunately, recurrences are not rare in PNT.
The 5-year survival rates for recurrent/metastatic neuroendocrine cancers have more than doubled since 2004, so yes this is indeed news and not desperation as you put it. We can say the same for stem cell treatments in certain instances as well. I won't claim to know exactly what Manning had done or what the exact nature of his injury was, but his trip was quite likely not borne of desperation.
If anyone is interested in more information, technical or not, related to these radiologic or stem cell treatments I'd be happy to oblige.
lol B actually has a morsel of good insight here. There's definitely a conflict of interest where the FDA is concerned.
I actually would...my dad died after a (very short) battle with pancreatic cancer in 2004.
If any of these medical procedures were necessary or beneficial they would be covered under the Obama plan….
I didn't mean to imply that the FDA was God's gift to consumers... But the regulation is there...
It is said that were aspirin up for FDA approval today, it would be rejected, for the same reason Celebrex was pulled off shelves a few years ago... Unchecked, it is some pretty powerful stuff...
"If any of these medical procedures were necessary or beneficial they would be covered under the Obama plan…."
Obamacare doesn't decide what gets covered.
The insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid do, and they only pay for FDA-approved stuff.
Very sorry to hear. Do you know what kind of pancreatic cancer it was? There are different treatments depending on the aggressiveness and subtype of disease. Please PM me if you'd care to discuss in private.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
