HONOLULU — A Hawaii resident, who has been living with a slow-growing yet incurable cancer since 2006, is the first person in the state to receive a new specialized radiation treatment.
HONOLULU — A Hawaii resident, who has been living with a slow-growing yet incurable cancer since 2006, is the first person in the state to receive a new specialized radiation treatment.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the cancer in Mary Bona’s gut grew over the summer despite several rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments.
That’s when her doctor found out about a treatment approved earlier this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to target hard-to-reach neuroendocrine tumors.
Neuroendocrine tumors are a group of rare cancers that originate primarily from the pancreas or intestines.
The new procedure allows doctors to intravenously inject radiation into a chemical that “acts as vehicle” to carry the cancer-killing drug directly to the tumors. The novel medication developed in the Netherlands was flown to Oahu from Italy with a tight expiration date.
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Wonder which insurance company she has that is willing to go the extra mile for such a novel treatment. You read all the time about them denying new treatments, its nice to read about someone being able to get access to some cutting edge medicine instead of being denied.
That would be really nice to know which Insurance Company she has. I’m betting it’s not HMSA, one can hope though.
The next step, would be if this treatment doesn’t pan out is try an experimental drug. 37 state will allow it and our president backs “right to try”. She will have to move to do it because Hawaii VETOED that bill, but they did give themselves a FAT raise.
Strange that you would publish identifying personal health information without ever mentioning speaking to the patient or getting the releases required by federal law.
You have heard of HIPAA??? You know *WHY* it’s out there? There was no need to identify the patient.