How Washington Is Nixing a Cancer Cure

In addition to signing the petition for CMS, please also write to your member of the House of Representatives and Senators to ask them to address this horrifying situation with legislation that requires CMS to reimburse for this life saving treatment.

Robert Atcher
President-elect, Society of Nuclear Medicine

In addition to signing the petition at the lymphoma website, send a letter to your Representative and Senators demanding that they pass legislation to address this horrifying situation.
Robert Atcher
President-Elect
Society of Nuclear Medicine

Here's an alternative solution. visit http://www.lymphomation.org/CMS-endorse-RIT.htm

Sign this petition. It will be delivered to the CMS. 3000 people have signed it so far. There is absolutely no excuse not to sign this.

Mr. Alter... thank you so much for your article. it's the exact fuel that this fire needs to apply that "heat" as another commentor mentioned.

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Thank you so much for enlightening us.

Heat must be applied to allow this life-saving drug. A cure or long remission means less money spent on these patients in the long run. Doesn't the goverment understand this?

I'm disgusted by the idea that some doctors don't tell their patients about life saving therapies because they will lose the patient to a large institution. Don't they take an oath to do no harm? For our sake I hope doctors like this are the exception and not the rule. But in case they aren't, it only proves the point I make to all of my loved ones: unfortunately, you cannot always trust the advice of health professionals. You must take responsibility to educate yourself about your disease and get a second opinion if possible.

More action needs to be taken to stop this funding cut. Thank you for posting such an articulate article about another threat to our nation's health.

Action needs to be taken to stop this funding cut. Thank you for an articulate article on such an important health topic.

Hello Mr. Alter,

The link to your column from the Drudge report has changed and now brings me to a general Newsweek site where I can't find you. Could you talk to the drudge people and get it fixed?

It is so sad that as always it is about money and not lives. The pharmaceutical companies are out to make their money at any cost. Hospitals and Doctors are just as bad. My favoirte line has always been..."You have a lot of patients but I have only one Father and one Mother." That was before the Doctor's mistakes took the life of my Dad from Lymphoma who was misdiagnosed in 1990...and a mistake by our internist caused the death of my Mom this past August.. Doctors are out for the money. It is so sad, that it has come down to that nawadays.

The greed of non-affilliated doctors is to be expected but perhaps the problem is that SmithKline did not make the correct contributions to the correct political party.

It frightens me, I receive medicare, that one agency, of political apontees could make a deciision contrary to the facts, that might end my life prematurely.

Mickey Vail
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dear Mr. Alter - thank you for writing about this issue and for publicizing the ridiculous injustice of this 'final ruling.' It is my great hope that this ruling will be reversed and that Bexxar and Zevalin might be available one day for my mom, who has Non-hodgkins Lymphoma.

RIT has been maligned as ???too expensive.??? Take another look.

Diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in January 2002, my disease proved refractory to the two types of chemotherapy that was tried, and both types had to be suspended before I completed the full regimen of either. RIT became available in the nick of time in September 2002.

My medical bills totaled $199,339.22 between January and December of that year. $166,409.72 was spent on doctor visits, tests, scans, chemotherapy (only partial regimens, remember!) that failed to arrest the disease but often sent me to the hospital with more (costly!) side effects than I care to recall.

RIT ??? including the drugs, all the doctor visits, scans and tests associated with it ??? totaled $36,929.50.

So let???s do the math. I???ve been healthy for 5 full years, making the cost of RIT treatment $7,385.90 per year for each year that I got to stay alive because the treatment was available. That???s a small price to pay for having my life back.

I suspect the bean counters at CMS have fancy degrees from prestigious colleges. It???s time they go back to basic math. Maybe they???d stop costing themselves money ??? and killing innocent patients.

Sounds bad on government beuracacy. Or does it? It does seem a bit much to charge $25,000.00 for a treatment. CMS low reimbursement and GSK cost sounds like a pissing contest that only will result in loss of acess to health care.
MG MD internal med

Comment: We donate money so a cure can be found for many of our diseases, but when we finally find something that works like Zevalin and Bexxar, congress to pulls the plug. There are many people who have lymphoma that have insurance and many that don't. Do we let our small children die before they have a chance to live. Do we let our family and friends die because they can' t afford the drug that will save their life? This final ruling on November 1st needs to be heard again. We are murdering our own citizens for money.

Thank you for bringing attention to this matter.

I am adding my grateful voice to the chorus of non-Hodgkins lymphoma survivors who had the benefit of Zevalin, in my case in March 2006 following a relapse. I am still cancer free and hope to see my two young daughters grow up. Thank you, Mr. Alter, for drawing attention to this issue.

This fight is similar in that these beurocracies and their unethical and unreasonable approach to the sick, just makes you sick. The CareToLive vs. FDA fight that they are waging on behalf of cancer patients faces the same kind of fight against the morons in Washington. George Bush said that health care decisions should be made between doctor and patient.: lets see him back that statement up with action agaiints these agencies.

Where is congress when you need them? A. Somewhere having lunch with a lobbyist and holding thei hand out.

Keep fihgting for justice and reform and those at CTL will do the same.

Thank you so much for giving this important cancer research issue the attention it deserves. I too am a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma survivor. I had Zevalin in February of 2006 as a part of a stem cell transplant. I got the strategic radiation of my cancer cells rather than the total body radiation that patients usually get with a stem cell transplant. I lost my father and uncle to NHL in 2000 and 2002. I like to think the Zevalin that I got will give me a better shot at long term survival. They only lasted less than 3 years each from day of diagnosis. I will be three years from diagnosis in March 2008. I am in remission and in great health. The elimination of Zevalin and Bexxar would be an incredible setback on the great field of cancer treatments right now. Your article is a god-send! You are a saint for publishing it!!!