Revlimid
Drugs, Health Costs

The Price of Remission

Revlimid is one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of more than $100 billion. It has extended tens of thousands of lives — including my own.

But Revlimid is also, I soon learned, extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each daily pill. (Although, I later discovered, a capsule costs just 25 cents to make.)

Micrograph of breast cancer cells
Biotechnology, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Drugs

‘A New Era’ of Cancer Therapies

Now experts say that new therapies are beginning to surpass challenges that previous treatments couldn’t, providing safer, more targeted delivery directly to tumors. These include drugs that contain radioactive substances, called radiopharmaceuticals, which are used to diagnose or treat cancer; medications that can influence the genes that spur or suppress tumor growth; and therapeutic cancer vaccines.

768px healthy human t cell
Cancer, Immunology, Pancreatic Cancer, Vaccines

Are New Immune-Based Treatments for Kidney and Pancreatic Cancer on the Horizon?

New immune-based treatments for kidney and pancreatic cancer have shown promising results in two small clinical trials. In both trials, the treatments appeared to prevent cancer from returning in patients who had successful surgery to remove their tumors. The treatments are called therapeutic cancer vaccines because they help the immune system eliminate an existing cancer.

Vaccination shot vaccine injection child nurse
Child Health, Measles, Newborn and Infant Health, Public Health, Vaccines

Combatting the measles threat means examining the reasons for declining vaccination rates

The anti-vaccine literature is not anti-science. It is filled with statistics and references to scientific studies, although the facts are often wrong. Parents who read this literature need more than the simple reassurance of experts that vaccines are safe and effective. They need to be shown evidence and have confidence that their concerns are being taken seriously.