For One Child, a Miracle Cancer Drug Is Hard to Come By

Treating cancer is a race against time. And every once in a while, there’s a drug in development that is so promising, patients plead with pharmaceutical companies to gain access before the FDA’s approval.

That has been happening with a new class of drugs, called immunotherapy drugs – treatments that harness the immune system to fight cancer.

Kathy Liu first heard about immunotherapy a few years ago at a conference focusing on the rare renal cancer her 10-year old son Joey was fighting. Liu had her son’s cancer tumors analyzed and indeed he did seem like a candidate for immunotherapy.

“That’s why I’m so desperate, contacting the drug companies,” she told WNYC. “I told them I understand the policy, I understand the regulation, and I understand all the risks, but my child just has no time to wait.”

Listen to the challenges faced by the family, and their caregivers, as they try to save a dying boy.

You can see more pictures of Joey on the family's website, Joey's Wings.

Our series is produced with NPR and with WETA, whose documentary Ken Burns Presents Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies will air on PBS in March.