As her father fought his losing battle with glioblastoma, Meghan McCain asked her Twitter followers and “The View” audience last year to support two nonprofits that fund research on this notoriously aggressive and wily brain cancer.
The plea made experts wish, if only the main problem were money.
Sen. John McCain died Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81 and had been diagnosed with glioblastoma in July 2017. The son and grandson of Navy admirals, he became a Navy pilot and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. A member of the U.S. Senate since 1987, McCain was the Republican candidate for president in 2008. Last year, two months after announcing that he had been diagnosed with cancer, he cast a pivotal vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
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We just lost our son on June 22, 2019 to this terrible cancer. He was 24 and was diagnosed with this cancer when he was 20 years old. Please keep trying to find a cure so no one else has to suffer.
My husband just yesterday was diagnosed with this horrible cancer. His Neurologist stated that where his tumors are located they can not do surgery. Our only treatment options appears to be Chemo and Radiation. I’ve read several articles that basically say although this treatment does help it’s just not able to totally destroy this cancer. I’m heart aches for my husband who’s old 60 years old and I pray that this is not a generic cancer that our children and grandchildren have to be concerned about.
I hope you find the funding needed so others in the near future don’t have to worry about this horrible cancer. Sincerely Bobbett
We just lost our 17 year old granddaughter to glioblasroma. It’s a beast. Her service was yesterday. Please don’t stop trying.
This article is a great revelation of the limits of conventional clinical research. After leading national discussions in the “Expanded Access” field for the last ten years, I would like to propose that we start thinking of wide-enrollment Expanded Access trials for the vast numbers of patients who aren’t eligible for research trials of new drugs in the particular disease. Co-morbidities, con-medication, and disease progression are all real-world factors in the impact of any treatment; and they are all factors that will disqualify patients from most research studies. But Expanded Access trials have a “treatment-use” objective to provide exploratory options to patients and their doctors. This non-commercial objective allows collaborative sponsorship from disease organizations, patient assistance programs, and health systems. It also allows regulatory authorization for much MUCH larger and more diverse enrollment. Investigational cancer drugs in the early 2000s enrolled thousands -sometimes tens of thousands- of late stage cancer patients in centrally monitored Expanded Access trials. All were people who would have otherwise been excluded from the development process altogether. We learned that the data from these programs can teach us important lessons about who benefits from a particular medicine and who does not. What are the covariates of response? You can’t always detect this from an RCT of just 300 patients. My partners and I recognized the need for a national forum on integrating large-group Expanded Access trials into the drug development process, and we launched the Expanded Access Summit, which debuted in 2017 with great attendance and a resulting list of best practices for feasible programs that engage meaningful cross sections of patients, under combinations of real world scenarios and drug regimens. Please consider joining us again in January for the second annual Expanded Access in Washington DC, the national forum on how to learn more from large, secondary cohorts of patients.
Ok let’s do more research. But since we spread all our research all over the map it will be impossible to find any cures. What will happen though is we will have more drugs on the market that will only prolong the disease(s). The only way to find a cure is to concentrate all efforts on one disease at a time, just imagine all the labs either working on one disease or working the proofs ( verification ). Wow, we could really create cures. BUT which one to choose? That is where the problem begins.
My lab is Doing some promising immunotherapy research in GBM. Do you know where fundcan be applied for besides NCI?? Would like to apply for funding.
Years ago we worked on patient recruitment and retention programs for glioblastoma. The study was a mortality endpoint study. The retention program gave emotional and informational support to patients and family members. Importantly, when end point was reached a special packet of informational support was given to the family to guide them through the grieving process. It was a remarkable project. The patients were selfless and we were all working toward the same goal – find an effective treatment
I am so sad that Senator McCain has been challenged by this disease, and that it has been the reason for his loved ones to lose their remarkable family member; and we have lost an honorable man who has represented the citizens of our nation.
We just lost our own parents who passed on ten days ago for our awesome Father, who like the rest of his siblings all diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease; our Mother, Father’s bride is how he always referred to the love of his life. who predeased him by a few months. We have lost several family members these past months within a year. Most elderly, the rest still very young.
When we lose our parents, especially because of diseases that have not yet responded to any treatment that have been successful in being stopped and reversed, its so very distressing for those of us who have no chance to provide any help for them. The several months or years that we are with our loved ones who face these still unknown ways to make their lives healthy again, are especially painful for us.
My heartfelt condolences for his family and friends who are now without their loved one, and our prayers for this honorable man who gave many years of his life for the benefit of the citizens of our nation; I am sure that we all grieve for his passing. We ( our family ), take some comfort that our beloved parents are no longer suffering and in such horrific pain anymore. I hope that Senator McCain’s loved ones are experiencing this relief along with the loss of their beloved family member.
AS I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES BEFORE, SHARON, YOU ARE AMONG THE BEST SCIENCE WRITERS AND ONE OF THE MOST INFORMED. THANKS FOR THIS SPLENDID EXPLANATION.
BTW, WHY DOESN’T PRESIDENT penis/RUBIO JUST RESIGN AND APPLY HIS SELF-DECLARED GENIUS TO EASIER PROBLEMS THAN TURNING AMERICA INTO HIS OWN PSYCHOTIC IMAGE — SUCH PROBLEMS AS THIS ONE, i.e., BRAIN CANCER RESEARCH?
GENE