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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (595878)	12/18/2010 6:13:50 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1585357

The Susan Komen people and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance don't agree. --------- Obama's Death Panel Tells Seniors Suffering from Breast Cancer: Go Ahead and Die Already Remember the recess appointment of Donald Berwick, the controversial head of Medicare and Medicaid? Just days after his appointment, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance warned that, for the first time in history, FDA-approved anti-cancer therapies might not be covered by Medicare. Today their predictions came to pass. And legacy media is silent. Utterly and completely silent. On Dec. 17 the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take the radical step of revoking approval for an advanced drug in the treatment of one of the country's most deadly diseases... [and] the effects on breast cancer patients will be devastating. Some 17,500 American women are prescribed Avastin every year. Many will face shorter, more painful lives because of the FDA's decisions. ...Despite all evidence to the contrary, the advisory committee claims its recommendation had nothing to do with Avastin's cost... However, many American women are getting something priceless in return for those dollars: life and vitality. In one clinical trial, nearly 50% of patients receiving Avastin witnessed their tumors shrink. Another study found that patients receiving the drug in conjunction with chemotherapy lived "progression-free" twice as long as patients without it. The Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance have been vocal in their opposition to these actions. And legacy media is silent. Shouldn't these decisions be left to the families and their doctors? Apparently not, thanks to the one-size-fits-all Obamacare program. Worse still, this is only the beginning. Rationing and death panels are very real, despite the propaganda asserting otherwise. Berwick himself, the most powerful man in all of medical care, has plainly stated that "it's not a question of whether we will ration health care [but] whether we will ration with our eyes open." 40,000 American women die each year from breast cancer. And Avastin is often their last hope. Now, liberals: what would you call the government bureaucrats who arbitrarily decided to stop paying for this drug? I mean, besides a "death panel"? And this is only the beginning. Obamacare doesn't kick in for real until 2014. And legacy media is silent. directorblue.blogspot.com Death Panels Begin: FDA Votes to Block Avastin for Breast Cancer Treatmentby Publius From the Associated Press: Federal health authorities are recommending the blockbuster drug Avastin no longer be used to treat breast cancer, saying recent studies failed to show the drug’s original promise to help slow the disease. The Food and Drug Administration’s decision is supported by many cancer experts but is sure to draw resistance from cancer patients and some doctors who fiercely defend the drug and say it should remain available. The FDA approved Avastin for breast cancer in 2008 based on studies suggesting it halted the spread of breast cancer for more than five months. But follow-up studies showed that delay lasted no more than three months, and patients suffered dangerous side effects. Doctors will still be able to prescribe the drug “off-label,” though some insurers may not pay for it. That last bit gives you the real story. This was about cost-cutting, not medical efficacy as we’ve repeatedly shown. Ironically, at about the same time the FDA was making its decision, the EU ruled to continue recommending Avastin. So, for breast cancer patients, there is more choice in Europe than the US. biggovernment.com