Does cancer cure take back seat to bottom line?

Extending cancer patients' lives more profitable than preventing disease, says N.Y. Times scribe

Heidi Williams, MacArthur "genius" grantee

Want to know why preventing cancer isn't the chief priority in development of drugs?

Answer: It's not profitable enough.

According to The New York Times, "economic incentives encourage researchers to focus on treatment rather than prevention."

A recent piece written by Austin Frakt and distributed in an online Times' newsletter, "The Upshot," charges that the sitution stems from the "way the patent system interacts with the Food and Drug Administration's drug approval process" — an interaction that "skews what kinds of cancer clinical trials are run."

Austin Frakt

Frakt contends there's "more money to be made investing in drugs that extend cancer patients' lives by a few months than in drugs that would prevent cancer in the first place."

Those findings are based on the work of Heidi Williams, a MIT economics prof and MacArthur "genius" grant winner, and two other experts.

After patenting a drug, pharmaceutical companies "race the clock to show that their product is safe and effective" — so they can obtain FDA approval, Frakt notes. "The more quickly they can complete those studies, the longer they have until the patent runs out, which is the period of time during which profit margins are highest."

Drug companies have found developing meds "to treat late-stage disease is usually much faster than developing drugs to treat early-stage disease or prevention, because late-stage disease is aggressive and progresses rapidly."

That, in turn, "allows companies to see results in clinical trials more quickly, even if those results are only small improvements in survival."

Between 1973 and 2011, Frakt writes, "there were over 17,000 trials of patients with the lowest chance of survival…but only 500 for cancer prevention, which confer the longest survival gains."

Williams' study estimated that current incentives "led to 890,000 lost life-years among American patients found to have cancer" in one year alone.

The best way to address the problem, Frakt suggests, is to have the FDA more routinely give approvals based on "indications of improved health that can be measured more quickly than survival — so-called surrogate endpoints." 

Another remedy might be to extend the period of a drug's market exclusivity to compensate for what's called the "commercialization lag."

Details on research and clinical trials regarding cancer in general and breast cancer in particular can be found my the book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer."

Will new drugs eventually result from findings?

Genes in African elephants could lead to protection for human cancers, study indicates

African elephant

An African elephant walked into a bar, ordered a glass of water and told the mixologist, "I've got a good chance of never getting cancer."

Sound like the start of a joke about the elephant in the room? 

Well, it's not.

The implication that the pachyderm might have some kind of evolutionary protection against cancer while human beings can only wish for such immunity is somewhat unsettling.

According to a recent story by Deborah Netburn in the Los Angeles Times, scientists say that "just 4.8% of known elephant deaths related to cancer. For humans, cancer-related deaths are between 11% and 25%."

Those figures fly in the face of elephants, which live about 70 years, having 100 times more cells than humans — cells that, in theory at least, should therefore mutate and become malignant more often than human cells.

But African elephants, it appears, "have 20 copies of a gene called TP53" that has the "ability to create a protein that suppresses tumors," the Times article indicates.

That translated into "a damaged cell [destroying] itself so it won't pass on potentially harmful mutations," the piece noted.

Humans have only one copy of TP53.

Dr. Joshua Schiffman

The Times story was based on a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Joshua Schiffman, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City and a senior author of the study, indicated the findings could lead to creation of "a drug that mimics the actions of TP53" — which eventually could mean new protections for humans.

"Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," the VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers, details how recent studies have advanced the body of knowledge in the cancer community — as well as how study results have tended to flip-flop, changing not only from year-to-year but even month-to-month.

Men agree age, color and creed don't matter

Support group still aiding males whose partners have breast cancer or other major diseases

Among current Marin Man to Man regulars
shown perusing "Rollercoaster" are, from
left, John Teasley, Edward Marson,
Marv Edelstein and Gerry Bourguignon.

A 22-year-old called me several weeks ago to find out more about Marin Man to Man, the support group that I, Woody Weingarten, have been running for two decades.

His mom had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Man to Man, I told him, is a group of males who are coping, or who have had to cope in the past, with their partners or family members facing a life-threatening disease.

He would be our youngest drop-in, I said — but age really doesn't matter. Nor does color or creed, we've long agreed.

Still, at the high end of the age spectrum, I noted, are participants well into their 80s.

We've had members who've been regulars 22 years. We've also had men who've attended only once, taking what they required but finding no need to return (though they've all talked with me afterward).

Although we've expanded to include men whose partners have had lung cancer, and one guy who had breast cancer himself, the vast majority of participants are caregivers for breast-cancer patients.

We meet at 9:30 a.m. every Wednesday at West End Café on 4th Street in San Rafael. The only cost is coffee or breakfast — if you have any.

Want more information about the group? It can easily be obtained at our website, Marin-Man-to-Man.org.

To be sure, there's certainly no shortage of caregivers around who seek the support and advice of others who've already gone through what they're experiencing. In fact, according to last month's AARP Bulletin, there currently are 40 million caregivers in the United States — five million more than the figure I'd been quoting since it appeared only a couple of years ago in The New York Times.

My VitalityPress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," also contains guidelines on how to cope with the ups and downs of diagnosis, treatment and aftermath. It's available via Amazon or your local bookstore.

As Thanksgiving Day 2015 approaches…

We're grateful, decades later, for being cancer-free, in decent health — and still in love

Black Friday's right around the corner but I couldn't care less.

Indeed, I, Woody Weingarten, may be the world's worst consumer/shopper.

Woody Weingarten and Nancy Fox — still in love.

Necessities are what I purchase. Luxuries are what I tend to leave for everyone else to buy.

That's because I have virtually everything I truly need (the Bentley I've always fantasized about notwithstanding to the contrary).

With Thanksgiving Day also staring me in the face once again, though, I can't help but ponder what heads the list of hundreds of things I'm grateful for — with the answer coming quickly: 

My wife, Nancy Fox, and I — despite having entered our geezerhoods — are cancer-free, comparatively healthy, still "an item" and still in love after nearly 30 years together.

In recent public appearances, I ended both short and long speeches with two brief excerpts from my VitalityPress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer." The book is aimed specifically at male caregivers but its messages clearly apply to both genders.

And the fragments act as reminders to both Nancy and me what we endured when she was diagnosed more than 20 years ago with breast cancer.

And that we've survived.

And thrived.

The initial excerpt is something I borrowed from my wife's diary. It was written after she'd been declared cured of the disease:

"I have considered what I want in my life. Peace, love harmony, an end to war throughout the world. Those desires have not changed. But now I want to pay more attention to Woody, be a better mother and daughter.

"I have allowed myself to befriend visualizations, crystals, vitamins, hands-on healing. I have prayed.

"I want this entry in my diary to be profound. I want to remember all the important things, to put them down for me and Woody and whoever to see. But I don't feel profound. I simply feel relieved, so glad it's over."

My excerpt is no less emotional. In fact, my eyes seem to water each time I read it:

"We can now offer greater understanding and kindness to each other — and to virtually everyone who touches our lives. We can now recognize it's not crucial what gender or age someone with a life-threatening disease is, and that both designated patient and anointed caregiver require nurturing.

"We can more regularly keep our priorities in order, strive for balance, unblock our spirituality and divert the million potential intrusions on our lives each week.

"The day we wed, I read [this] to my wife-to-be:

"Through all the nows and yet-to-comes, I pledge only this: to love you without reservations, as fully as the human condition will allow; to nurture our creative talents, so our individual and collective light may brighten a few shadowy corners of this dimension; and to cherish and retain, always, my glorious vision of us as soulmates…"

And then I inevitably add:

"Almost 30 years later, I haven't changed my mind — or my intent."

Family parades together for To Celebrate Life

Husband, wife and daughter model with other breast cancer survivors to raise money 

It was a family affair, what President John F. Kennedy might have called a combination profile in courage.

It involved Thomas R. Mautner; his wife, Cheryl Rose Mautner; and their daughter. Victoria Mautner Zemrak.

All three participated in a recent San Rafael "evening of enchantment" that marked the 20th anniversary of the Marin County nonprofit, the To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation.

The trio "stepped out" by modeling on the runway of the organization's annual fundraising fashion show of breast cancer survivors.

They were among the 31 who paraded at the event, which also included live and silent auctions, entertainment and dancing.

Tom Mautner

Tom Mautner was the only male to model this year.

He'd had a mastectomy on Feb. 14, 2002 — "a terrible way to spend Valentine's Day," he was quoted in the event's program — after being diagnosed and informed he was part of the 1 percent of breast cancer patients that are male.

Two years later, Victoria was diagnosed at age 34.

Victoria Mautner Zemrak

The mother of five was found to have two types of breast cancer (and a cyst) in her right breast. She underwent a lumpectomy, followed by a mastectomy when more cancer was found in the margins. Reconstructive surgery came last year after treatments of chemotherapy, Herceptin and tamoxifen.

"God, family and friends were my solid rock through all the hard times," she's said. "I couldn't have made it without them."

Cheryl last year had radiation after her surgery

Cheryl Mautner

The mother of three, grandmother of 10 and great-grandmother of three gratefully noted in the program that "My husband…was and is always by my side."

The Sebastopol couple has been married 47 years.

The motto of To Celebrate Life, whose mission is to "raise funds and grant financial assistance to nonprofit organizations [in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area] that provide services and support to people living with breast cancer," is succinct:

"No one should face breast cancer alone. With your help, no one will."

Since its inception, To Celebrate Life has given more than $4 million to fund emergency and direct services for breast cancer patients.

So far.

To learn where to contact agencies and organizations like To Celebrate Life that can help breast cancer patients, their partners and families, I, Woody Weingarten, urge you to check out my book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," which is aimed at male caregivers.

Woody Weingarten gets out his upbeat message

'Rollercoaster' author to do hourlong talk-radio interview, then speak at caregiver confab

November's key phrase for me is "getting out the message."

Why?

Because I, Woody Weingarten, will be on the VoiceAmerica talk radio network in a live interview from 2 to 3 p.m. Nov. 11, and then I'll be the main speaker at the 8th annual Healings in Motion caregivers conference at 1 p.m. three days later, Nov. 14, in Stockton.

My message is that men can successfully be caregivers for their ailing partners, that they and their partners and their relationships can all survive, and that there can be light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

That combo message is also the main thrust of my VitalityPress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," which is aimed at male caregivers. 

Cheryl Jones

The interview — to be conducted by Cheryl Jones, host of "Good Grief" — will be archived on the VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel and on iTunes afterwards.

Jones says her program aims to "share how [interviewees] have walked through their own exquisite pain and what they have gained as a result." 

Her interviews, she adds, allow listeners to "come away ready to follow our own dreams to a deeper, more meaningful time on this beautiful earth!"

Mary Nicholson

The conference, which carries the theme "Inner Safari: A Joyful Day to Relax, Retool and Renew," is — according to the organization's website — "tailored to prevent burn-out, assist caregivers in developing skills and gaining the knowledge necessary to fulfill caregiving responsibilities."

It actually will encompass the hours of 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m and will feature other speakers, workshops, body massages, improv comedy and vendor booths — at the Robert Cabral Center. 

Last  year's confab drew about 400 participants; it is hoped that this year's will be even larger.

Healings in Motion was founded by Mary Nicholson following a brain aneurysm, stroke and grand mal seizure — after she'd served as a caregiver for her husband, who'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Brad Pitt comforts his wife 'throughout ordeal'

Angelina Jolie fighting early menopause after prophylactic surgeries to prevent cancer

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Actress Angelina Jolie, who recently had surgeries to ward off breast and ovarian cancer, is fighting early menopause as a result.

According to the Daily Dish, the 40-year-old told broadcaster Tom Brokaw that her 51-year-old husband, actor Brad Pitt, has comforted her "throughout the ordeal" and had made it clear "the surgeries wouldn't take anything away from the woman he fell in love with."

Jolie said he'd also indicated "that what he loved, and what was a woman to him, was somebody who was smart, and capable, and cared about her family. It's not about the physical body."

She knew throughout the surgeries, she elaborated, "that he was on my side and this wasn't something where I was gong to feel less of a woman — because my husband wasn't gonna let that happen."  

Jolie had her ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed in March, as a preventative measure, after doctors had found what might be early signs of ovarian cancer.

In 2013, the superstar had a prophylactic double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery after learning she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation that heightened her risk of developing breast cancer to about 87 percent. 

Her mom, Marcia Lynne "Marcheline" Bertrand, wife of actor Jon Voight, had died of ovarian cancer in 2007, at age 56, after an eight-year battle.

Rose Barlow, executive director of Zero Breast Cancer, a Marin County nonprofit dedicated "to prevention and finding the causes of breast cancer," has commented that "removing Fallopian tubes and ovaries not only significantly reduces the risk of those organs becoming diseased but also substantially reduces BRCA carriers' breast cancer rates."

Dish reported that Jolie told Brokaw in the joint interview on the "Today" show that "I knew the breast would be a bigger surgery and physically changing. The ovaries is more [about] your hormones changing and your emotions changing, but it's different — you feel different."

Pitt, praising his wife's lack of vanity, noted that the surgeries and aftermath together became "another one of those things in life that makes you tighter."

He added that "she was doing it for the kids, and she was doing it for her family, so [that] trumped everything and anything."

What's involved in being a male caregiver? "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer" provides a detailed study of the role's ups and downs.

Headlines wrongly equate meat risks to smoking

First news reports exaggerate causal links that processed and red meats have to cancers 

Despite "persuasive evidence that eating meat can cause cancer," the risks are "very small for most people," declares an editorial in The New York Times.

The scathing commentary came after a World Health Organization (WHO) adjunct, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, found that processed meats (especially bacon, ham, corned beef, sausages and hot dogs) may be linked to colon and stomach cancers.

The group, according to an earlier Times news article by Anahad O'Connor, the WHO arm had evaluated more than 900 environmental and lifestyle factors that may contribute to cancer — including coffee, sunlight and night-shift work. 

The agency's report, which was published in "The Lancet Oncology" and based on a review of 800 epidemiological studies from various nations with differing diets and ethnicities, also indicated that red meats (beef and pork) may be a probable cause of colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

Initial news reports that the risks from eating those meats were as high as that of smoking were grossly exaggerated, however.

Dr. John Ioannidis

The Times editorial quoted Dr. John Ioannidis, chair of disease prevention at Stanford, as saying, "I think it's very important that we don't terrorize people into thinking that they should not eat any red meat at all."

Ioannidis, who wasn't involved in the WHO report, may be best known for causing an academic uproar when he published a paper in 2005 titled "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False."

To be fair, the Times news piece also quoted Susan Tapster, vice president of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, as calling "the panel's conclusions 'an important step' in helping people make more healthful dietary choices."

Recent ACS guidelines suggest skipping both processed and red meat and substituting fish, poultry and beans.

Causes of breast and other cancers are discussed at length in the VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer."