wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

A member of my family has CML and has taken Gleevec. Our insurance covers it and as I understand most policies do since it's basically a life or death situation. The Leukemia Society provides aid if your co-pays are too high for you and help is also provided by Novartis.

so just a wonky observation> whereas leukemia produces too many white blood cells, it's be shown in simian AIDs that about 20% of south africa's lion population adapted to this disease by constantly producing more T cells for the disease not to totally kill them. It's how their bodies stay alive and manage their chronic condition.
My point is that this real science stuff is SO much more interesting than creationism [yes, SMALL 'c'] a-n-y-d-a-y.

Aw, too late! I was hoping to ask about the difference btwn. the new classification of types of cancer the guests talked about near the end & the types like adenoma, carcinoma, & sarcoma, which have to do w/specific kinds of tissue rather than which organ the cancer starts in.

Another compelling reason why we need more federally funded stem cell research.

I just looked up the cost of Gleevac and it's $32,000 per year (according to wikipedia so I take that with a grain of salt). I am almost positive that my insurance would not cover this drug, and I am lucky enough to even have insurance (I am a freelancer). Isn't it worse to develop a drug that nobody can afford? I am curious as to whether these researchers, no matter how noble in their work, feel any responsibility to it's equitable administration in our broken health care system.

i asked my dad yesterday; do you really need a colonoscopy?; he got back and said that was smooth; it was like they wanted to be doing it; and these "guys" who get fifteen surgeries; ever considered quitting; drinking; smoking?; and we might not pass a public option; yeah i said PUBLIC; not private option; but that'd be cool too; correct me if i'm wrong; but is a lot of disease NOT just in our "human" nature?; proliferation; differentiation; marginalization; disenfranchisation; my students in the bronx could explain it; i taught it; and thought about how they were processing it while i did; so they could come up with questions; what a STRANGE and SADD love men have for money

It might help if you spelled some of those terms, too--like kinase. I actually heard it as "chionase," even though I know how it's spelled! (Maybe I picked up the "ch" from "chronic"?)

My grandmother had Multiple Myeloma and endured pharesis treatments. She had had ovarian cancer maybe 20 years earlier, and an oncologist friend said that the Myeloma was a result of the heavy chemotherapy for that cancer.

Have those initial chemo treatments been improved? Are most of the sufferers of Myelomas the result of prior medical treatment?

After what she went through, I believe she would have been better off dying from the first cancer, although I loved her dearly, it was awful to see what she had to suffer for a treatment that ultimately did not save her.

My mother died of Waldenstrom's Macro Globulnemia. Is this similar? If so should I be screened?