Fighting Cancer With Star Power
Family hopes YouTube debut and Patrick Swayze will help cut through red tape.
March 26, 2008— -- You Tube can make anyone famous. That's what three sisters in Indiana are hoping for as they fight to save their mother.
She's no Patrick Swayze, but Connie Loughman is one of thousands of people like the actor who is suffering from pancreatic cancer. Having been denied access to an unapproved drug they're hopeful could help her, the Loughman sisters have now turned to the power of YouTube to cut through red tape.
Armed with an online video and a Web site devoted to their cause, the family is encouraging people to blitz the biotech company conducting the drug's clinical trials to convince them to help cancer patients like their mother.
"Ever since my mom got sick, I've been searching — there's got to be something," said 35-year-old Jackie Loughman. "We told them, 'We'll pay for it, we'll release you from liability, we'll do anything that we can.'"
Like several families in their position, Connie Loughman's family has been trying to get access to the drug undergoing trial through an alternate avenue known as compassionate use.
If a drug company gives its okay, the request can proceed to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval.
According to a 2003 FDA report to Congress, the FDA reviewed 557 of those submissions in 2002 and approved the majority of them.
The FDA can also deny those requests for safety concerns or if it concludes that "available scientific evidence does not provide a reasonable basis for concluding that the drug may be effective and would not expose patients to serious additional risk of illness or injury," the report stated.
In the Loughman's case, GenVec, the company testing the cancer drug, denied the Loughman's request.
Robert Young, chancellor of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, emphasized why companies don't always give the green light. He said there is significant reason to be cautious in allowing patients to have access to drugs in the trial phase.
"I think most of us involved with clinical trials and most people who've cared for cancer patients for a long time are uncomfortable with that strategy," Young said.
