kidney cancer

Drug company refuses to give lifesaving medication to 7-year-old boy

Seven-year-old Josh Hardy has survived four bouts of kidney cancer, heart failure and a bone marrow transplant. But now, he is fighting for his life once again, after a drug company denied him access to a medication that could cure him of a potentially deadly virus.

In an attempt to save her son’s life, Josh’s mother, Aimee Hardy, has launched a grassroots campaign to encourage drug manufacturer Chimerix to allow her son to have the medication he so desperately needs.

“I want to be by his bedside, holding his hand, telling him, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ but because of this unwillingness to release this drug, I have to leave him and come talk to you and it infuriates me,” Hardy, from Fredericksburg, Va., told Peter Johnson Jr. on Fox and Friends.

Josh had been cancer-free for two years when a bone scan in November 2013 revealed he had developed a bone marrow disorder as a result of his earlier cancer treatments. In January 2014, he underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., but he subsequently developed adenovirus – an acute infection that can be deadly in people with compromised immune systems.

“Normally, Josh’s immune system would be able to handle the adenovirus if his immune system was set free,” Hardy wrote on her son’s CaringBridge.org page. “The challenge is his immune system can’t be set free yet because his body is still trying to adapt to the new bone marrow cells. So to keep the body from killing the new cells, they have to suppress the immune system, thus creating ideal conditions for adenovirus to advance. Catch 22.”

Doctors at St. Jude recommended Josh be treated with Brincidofovir – an antiviral drug that has been proven to clear up adenovirus in children within two weeks. However, Brincidofovir has not yet been approved by the FDA, so Josh hasn’t been able to gain access to the medication.

Chimerix, the company that manufactures Brincidofovir, has given hundreds of patients emergency access to the medication in the past, but they have since stopped this practice saying ‘they cannot afford it,’ according to Johnson Jr. However, Chimerix has received more than $72 million in federal funding to develop Brincidofovir.

“As we progressed to larger and more complex safety trials, we made the decision two years ago to stop the program and focus resources on earning FDA approval,” said Kenneth Moch, the CEO of Chimerix.

As Josh’s health continues to worsen, the Hardy family has launched a campaign to convince the company to allow Josh to receive the drug through a ‘compassionate use’ program – in which a drug company can allow a seriously ill patient to receive access to an unapproved drug.

“I feel that it’s just an excuse and we need them to totally change their stance, not only for us but for hundreds or even thousands of people that need [this drug],” Hardy told Fox and Friends. “…To me, [it’s] almost a crime to not make it available to everyone who needs it.”

Moch said his company has received hundreds of phone calls and emails in support of Josh. A Twitter campaign utilizing the hashtag #savejosh has also been launched to support Josh’s cause.

However, when Johnson Jr. asked Moch off camera if a visit to Josh’s bedside might help change his mind, Moch said it would not – much to the distress of Josh’s mother.

“He would see a frail little boy who has a very weak voice and has a hard time staying awake, because he’s in so much pain and to combat the pain he has to be on a lot of pain medication, so he’s drowsy,” Hardy said. “It’s horrible for us as parents to see, because he’s a vibrant, strong little boy, and even though he is frail, he has a very strong will about him. But things just keep stacking against him, and we just want to do everything we can to give him the opportunity to make a full recovery.”

To help save Josh, Hardy is encouraging supporters to call Chimerix at 919-806-1074; supporters can also e-mail compassionateuserequest@chimerix.com

SourcE: fox news

Microwaving tumors: New procedure knocks out kidney cancer without surgery

As a fight on cancer rages on, new record is creation it easier for doctors to mislay tumors though invasive surgery.

When Rory Kleinman, 42, sought medical courtesy for stomach issues in 2012, he had no suspicion that slight scans would exhibit a some-more critical problem.

“What happened was they were looking for something specific to do with my stomach, and by an MRI they afterwards saw something – a nodule on my liver – and so they had me do a successive MRI to check that,” Kleinman told FoxNews.com. “The nodule was fine, though in that second MRI they saw that there was a little mark that was on my kidney.”

That little mark on Kleinman’s kidney incited out to be a tumor.

“I only felt bombard shocked,” pronounced Kleinman. “I only never suspicion that we would have cancer during a immature age; if we was going to get it, we figured we would get it after in life.”

For many years, renal tumors compulsory prejudiced or sum dismissal of a kidney. Doctors would take a biopsy of a growth to see if it was cancer and afterwards confirm how many of a kidney to remove. But a new procession called x-ray ablation can be finished though surgery, and during a same time as a biopsy.

“Microwave ablation is a technique used to feverishness tumors,” Dr. Aaron Fischman, partner highbrow of radiology and medicine during Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City told FoxNews.com. “We’re means to indeed place a needle directly to a growth and kill it though indeed stealing it or creation an incision.”

Patients are put underneath unwavering sedation while a x-ray receiver is fed by a biopsy needle. After a square of a growth is private for testing, Fischman and his group use medical imaging to assistance place a tip of a receiver directly inside a tumor.

“The biggest advantage in my mind, and many of a patients will substantially tell you, that they don’t have to have surgery,” pronounced Fischman. “So we’re means to do this procession with no incision. We only put a needle directly into a kidney itself, and ablate it, so a liberation time is less, a snarl rate is theoretically reduction since a risk of draining is reduction though carrying a vital surgery.”

Microwave ablation is used to provide tumors in a liver, kidneys and lungs. Doctors during Mount Sinai have seen success rates of 90 to 95 percent in their patients who bear a procedure, Fischman said.

“Since this is a teenager procedure, a risks are minimal,” he said. “The many common thing that people can see is teenager draining or some pain during a site where a needle went in, and usually, this goes divided in a day or dual after a procedure.”

For Kleinman, a palliate of a procession has finished cancer a apart memory.

“Literally, we had a procession finished and a few days after we was behind during work – we unequivocally haven’t suspicion that many about it,” pronounced Kleinman. “I like that we don’t have to demeanour during a injure so that it reminds me that we had this procession done.”

Source: health medicine network