O/T Need help with problem with DH

Valerie,
Has he discussed this with his onc? Or, if he wouldn't believe what his onc said..maybe see a new one?

{{hugs}}

Bugs

Hi, Valerie,

I'm not sure of the drugs you're referencing, but Zevalin and Bexxar are the two that I read about in the NYT recently. They are difficult to handle, so are usually administered by large academic hospitals rather than the local oncologist.

One thing for your husband to consider is that the patients identified in the article were all late-stage. These drugs may still be an option for him if he has a recurrence. Granted, the article said the companies making them were considering dropping them because not enough patients were getting their treatment, but as NS said--this article clearly looks like a public service announcement/marketing pitch. They tell the readers that patients can get the drugs if they know to ask for them. And put up a fight if necessary. You can bet the sales of the two drugs are going to go up this year!


This link will only work for a short time, so anyone who wants to read the article needs to download it quickly:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/health...a74&ei=5070

An excerpt:
While Bexxar and Zevalin help many patients, only a minority become cancer-free for many years. But clinical trials indicate that they are as good as or better than other treatments. When the drugs were approved, analysts expected they would be used widely.

But the drugs have run into an obstacle that so far has been impassable. Because they are radioactive, they are almost always administered in hospitals, not doctors’ offices. As a result, doctors are not paid by Medicare and private insurers for prescribing them, as they are when they give patients a more common treatment, chemotherapy.

In addition, most oncologists outside academic hospitals treat many different cancers and may be only vaguely familiar with the drugs, said Dr. Andrew D. Zelenetz, chief of the lymphoma service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. “There are a number of barriers,” Dr. Zelenetz said.

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I find the uncertainty of a 'cure' to be one of the most difficult aspects of having early stage bc. I hope your husband finds a good way of navigating this new awareness.

I don't have any better advice, but I'm thinking of you..here's hugs for you

I'm going to hit on the therapy thing again.
I think your husband could benefit from therapy. Cognitive therapy, would teach him how to turn negative thoughts around, although other modalities can be equally helpful. Does his oncologist have a therapist or social worker in the practice? Maybe if you two went together it would help encourage him. If he still won't budge on the therapy issue, why not go yourself-- if nothing else it might give you coping strategies to help yourself and both of you.