Friday, April 20, 2012

A Cure? HAWMC 20


Miracle  Cure.  Write  a  news-­‐style  article  on  a  miracle  cure. What's the cure? How do  you  get  the  cure?  Be  sure  to  include  a  disclaimer    ;) 

Many times in this blog I write about reading news media articles where they tout a cure for cancer. I stress how we should be savvy advocates and be able to separate the good news reporting from the bad. Thanks Gary Switzer, Health News Watchdog blog (http://www.healthnewsreview.org/blog/) for providing the steps for evaluating the health news articles we read. So it is a bit difficult for me to write this entry which is basically a bad news article. But no one said the prompts this month would be easy to do. 

Here is this totally fictional account of a cure for ovarian cancer. 

CURE Found for Ovarian Cancer

Ten years ago researchers at the Super Cancer Center  reported that they had developed a drug that killed ovarian cancer cells in mice. Ovarian Cancer is the most deadly gynecologic cancer. Researchers at the Center were able to develop the drug , RuiNA, that would disrupt the RNA of  epithelial ovarian cancer cells. Epithelial is the most common type of ovarian cancer. RNA is used during cell reproduction. By disrupting that RNA sequencing the cells are unable to replicate. Dr. Masters is please that not only did the drug work in mice  but in phase I, phase II and phase III clinical trials. 


More than 50% of the women in the phase III trial were diagnosed as stage IV patients (metastasized disease. ) of those 725 women , 700 were disease free within the first three months of treatment. 
RuiNA was taken daily in pill form by the women in the trial. The 200 mg pill costs  $2150 for a month of treatment and will be covered by insurance. RuiNA will be produced by Bristol- Merck beginning next year. This is a major step in the treatment of Ovarian Cancer. Work still remains in finding a screening test. 




Still part of me wishes this was true. 


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

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