[alicem]

Karen, first of all, welcome to the forum, I am glad that you found us. I think that you will find an amazing amount of knowledge and support here. Cancer is the enemy at this website and we all detest it.


That being said, I agree that our health care system is not perfect, but I do not agree that socialized medicine is the way to go. I have heard many horror stories from across the pond as well.

When I talked about the cost of my triple dose of herceptin . . . that is the claim amount that was filed by my oncologist with my insurance company. That number is $7473, but the insurance company has an "agreed pricing" figure with TX Oncology of $2881. The cost to me . . . $0. That is because I have already reached my out of pocket costs for the year of less than $4,000. So yes, I paid $4000 (not $35K) more than you did for my entire treatment. However, from what I understand, your taxes in Italy are so much more than mine are. I know because I lived in Milano, Italy with our family for 2 years in the early 90's. We had to pay both U.S. and Italian taxes. I was taught in business school that there is no such thing as a "free lunch". I have always found that to be true.

The standard for newly diagnosed, non-stage 4 cancer is one year of Herceptin. I think you might be seeing some women have received it for more than a year and I think that is because they have advanced BC, or it has metastisized. I myself will be getting it once every 3 weeks for a year, just like your oncologist has recommended.

As far as your comments about whether or not the drug companies have any incentive to find a cure? Do they have ulterior, greedy motives? I'll admit that has crossed my mind. But my belief in the goodness of humanity overcomes those doubts. I cannot bring myself to be so cynical. I think thoughts like that do an inservice to all the dedicated scientists that are out there day after day, spending many long hours in the lab looking for answers. My sister-in-law had breast cancer 10 years ago. Her ordeal with chemo and radiation inspired her daughter Kimberly, my niece, to get her PhD in Chemistry. She just graduated from Cal/Berkely where she spent 5 years doing synthesis of a potential cancer cure molecule found in rare tree bark, or something like that. (My chemo brain won't let me remember exactly what ). She literally spent months on one reaction where she got less than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. The reaction never worked and she had to go back to square one. Finally after 5 years, she was successful. All this just to synthesize one molecule, and she is not even sure if it will be successful when it comes to treating cancer.

Whenever I start having my doubts, I look back on how far we have come in the last 30-40 years. The treatment for Breast cancer even 40 years ago is liken to the middle ages when you compare it to the treatment and the drugs that are available now. Even though great strides are being made, this is a slow process. Even Dr. Slamon and Genentech, the scientist and drug company responsible for Herceptin, admit that it was like finding a needle in a haystack. You might be interested in the book "Her2: The Making of Herceptin" by Robert Bazell or the movie based on the book, "Living Proof" - - it was just released on DVD and is a fantastic movie!!! It does show that there are definitely politics involved as well as being concerned with the bottom line when it comes to making decisions about clinical trials and finding new drugs.

I don't know what the answer is. If you take away what appears to be a huge profit, you also take away incentive - that is just human nature. The drug companies are beholden to their stockholders (which in reality is anyone with a pension plan, a 401K plan, a mutual fund, etc., i.e. . . . most of the American public) to make a profit. Another thought, for all the success and HUGE PROFITS that come with a drug like Herceptin, there are many, many, many potential drugs that look promising at the beginning only to fail at the end. The drug companies have to eat those costs. With risk comes reward, but also potential failure. I believe that there will be a profit in drugs that will cure us. Finally, with the statistics of 1 in 8 women getting breast cancer, the odds are very high that each and every scientist & drug company executive is touched personally by a loved one - mother, wife, sister, aunt, a friend, or an acquaintance who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. How can they NOT want to find a cure? This doesn't even take into account the FAME factor that comes to that scientist(s) who discover a cure.

Well, Karen, I am sorry that I rambled on so long but you touched a nerve. This might just be something that we will have to agree to disagree on. I am definitely open to differing opinions from others and would love to hear from you. Please know that everything I have said, was my opinion, and I do respect your right to your opinion. The last thing I want to do is scare you away from this website because it is so wonderful.

Buona notte! Ciao!