Doctors Seek Test for Deploying New Life-Extending Cancer Drugs

Jack Kiefer Current Event 12

URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/business/doctors-seek-test-for-deploying-new-life-extending-cancer-drugs.html?ref=science&_r=0

Citation: Pollack, Andrew. "Doctors Seek Test for Deploying New Life-Extending Cancer Drugs." New York Times 31 May 2015: n. pag. Print.

The article I read is called “Doctors Seek Test for Deploying New Life-Extending Cancer Drugs”. It is about how there are some researchers that are trying to find revolutionary new drugs that can help cancer patients live longer. The drug boosts the immune system’s ability to fight tumors that cause the cancer. However, while this prescription is incredible and it can keep people alive for years, it only works for a small percentage of patients. The same researchers that developed this drug are also working on a test that can help to see if people will respond to treatment. This could save a lot of money for people who don’t actually benefit but try it out to see if they do. The drugs are also very expensive, as much as 150,000 dollars a year, and higher costs for higher doses. The test to decide if people will benefit from the drug is yet to be finalized, “For ethical as well as scientific reasons… it would be unfair to withhold the new drugs from patients based on a test if there was still even a slight chance that the drugs would help” (Pollack). The article also talks about drugs developed by a company called Bristol Myers-Squibb. This is a company that did a 945 person survey to decide which medication that they developed is the best; Yervoy, Opdivo, or a combination of the two. They found that cancer patients who took both of them only had a condition that worsened after 11.5 months, and those who took Yervoy had 2.9 months more without a worsened condition, while Opdivo patients had 6.9 months. However, 55 percent of patients who took both of the medications suffered from side effects like diarrhea and colitis, as opposed to 27.3 percent who took Yervoy and 16.3 percent who took Opdivo.  

Obviously, this article and these new drugs are vital to humanity. Over thirteen million people have cancer in the US alone. These drugs could help make many of these people who are suffering live for years to come, because, “‘... because these medicines have an effect that, in some cases, is durable for years”(Pollack). Cancer is a very serious and unpleasant disease. If these drugs and the biomarker that scientists are beginning to develop actually work, then it would be able to save a lot of people.

Overall, this article was well written. It had a lot of different quotes from scientists. Quotes are very important because they help give weight to your words and they back up what you are going to say. However, at times the ideas didn’t flow well. For example, Pollack is talking about how the new biomarker for the drugs, and then transfers into a 945 person study about drugs and how they affect people. Also, it seemed like he unnecessarily divided paragraphs up into smaller paragraphs. Besides this, Pollack wrote very well.