[alicem]

This provision could possibly be just the first step in cost effective studies. What will be the next steps down the line? Here is a passage from Robert Bazell's book "Her2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer", Chapter 4, published in 1998:

"Based on simple business principles, he (John Curd) believed that Her-2/neu's potential would never justify the crushing cost -- ultimately more than $150 million -- of getting the drug to market. Because a minority of breast-cancer patients -- 25-30% -- suffer from the type of disease positively affected by the treatment, 'today if Her-2 came forward, you couldn't get it into development', he (Curd) says."

John Curd was a medical director who joined Genentech management in 1991. The book goes on to say . . .

"If the decision had been his, Genentech would never have taken Her-2/neu to advanced development. But when he arrived, the company was already committed to developing Her-2/neu."

As more is learned about breast cancer, scientists are finding many more sub-groups of the disease - meaning even lower percentages of women affected by certain aspects of the disease. Go back and re-read that line . . . the one that claims that OUR disease, Her2 +++ is a MINORITY, and because it is a minority, it should not have been explored.

My question is, once the line has been crossed to doing cost effective studies of health care, where will it end? The scary thing for me is the EASE that this was put into place in the stimulus package, a vehicle that is supposed to be about creating jobs? What does health care have to do with job creation and mortgage relief? I challenge you to ask all of your friends if they have even heard about this. More than likely they have no clue.

As in most cases, it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased so we must stay proactive in our Breast Cancer cause, and maybe now, more urgent than ever.