Legislation would improve lives of terminal cancer patients

In an effort to improve the quality of life for terminally ill cancer patients, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) held a news conference to introduce the Access, Compassion, Care and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act. The act intends to reform the process of approval for cancer patients seeking alternative and experimental drug treatments. Brownback said that the act will allow the process to be more patient oriented. Watson said that FDA policies appear to shift yearly and that cancer treatment has not improved greatly since the 1990s despite Congressional legislation intended to speed cancer treatment research.

Oncologist and cancer researcher Dr. Emil Freireich stated that too few cancer patients enjoy the benefits of compassionate care drugs due to strict requirements for participation in drug experiments that leave a large number ineligible, a process that he said is “torturing our own citizens.” Anna Tomalis, a thirteen year old cancer patient, stood calmly at her mother’s side while Liz Tomalis expressed surprise at the difficulty of attaining compassionate care drugs for her daughter after doctors told the family to halt treatment of her rare form of liver cancer.

Frank Burroughs, the founder of the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, pushed for the passing of this bill and said that every drug for which his organization urged early access has been approved by the FDA. Burroughs added that the FDA’s use of scientific tools that are not modern and a FDA report that “recommends provisional approval” are hindering the ability for current cancer patients to gain access to potentially life-saving drugs.