Brain Metastases Question

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm new to the board and joined because my youngest sister has just gone through chemo for breast cancer and is set for reconstruction in a couple of weeks. I have been following developments in treatment and was keeping an eye on a product for brain metastases that was up for review by the Oncology panel at the FDA on May 3rd. Because of what appears to be internal political reasons they recommended against approval. The drug is RSR13. It improves the effectiveness of radiation and has minimal side effects. It increased the average survival time for breast cancer brain metastases patients from a little over four months to over eight months. Of the 60 women in the treated group 12 were still alive at 30 months while all 55 women in the control group were dead by 18 months. I have been contacting everyone I can think of to bring attention to what is happening with this drug. The press and colunmists seem unresponsive to the issue in my efforts so far. The National Brain Tumor Coalition has been on top of things and is making all the effort they can. I have had a good response from the Y-Me group and am waiting to hear more from them. I am also waiting to hear back from the American Cancer Society following a good phone discussion. Has this issue been brought up to any of you from your oncologist or support groups? Would you be interested in getting involved? I am in the Cleveland area and the local news groups will only provide coverage if there is someone currently under treatment that is willing to be the focus of the story. Any volunteers? If you are interested I can email you with a summary of the situation that I have put together. You can also do a search for RSR13 to pull up many articles. The Allos Therapeutics site has a lot of information and what they presented to the Oncology panel. This is probably enough of a lengthy email for my first post. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Mike Bauman