Medical Oncology - Rohit Joshi
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My Cancer Blog

Media and Patient hopes

26/7/2020

 
Each week in clinic, patients and their family members will bring me cut-outs from newspapers or magazines or video recorded clips from a TV article – mentioning about the latest and greatest cure for cancer. They bring the article will such hope and expectation. Rightly so.
The problem is that 90% of the times, I have to break their hopes by telling them that most of these reports are experiments are done in a laboratory test-tube or an early phase clinical trial. The chances of most of these drugs reaching a clinic is low or even if they do arrive, it would be at least 4 – 5 years. Most of the patients who need that medication now, will never get to use it.
I understand that journalists have to publish interesting articles, but I really do hope that they would clearly state that this is experimental medication and might take several years to get to the clinic or something like that. Seems like a trivial issue, but it is a pretty big deal for patients and their family members who are struggling for anything new.
The hope lives on.

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    Rohit Joshi

    Cancer, Medicine and Life: A cancer and medicine blog to help on the journey of life. Medicine and Medical Oncology are rapidly changing fields and is hard for most people to keep up. A diagnosis of any illness, in particular cancer is devastating news for anyone, and the hope is that we can share knowledge and support each other.

    Adelaide Oncology & Haematology

    Calvary Central Districts Hospital

    25 - 37 Jarvis Road, 
    Elizabeth Vale SA 5112
    Ph: 08 8380 1300
    Mon - Fri: 8:30 am - 5 pm

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