Do You People REALIZE?? We Have A Fucking CURE For Cancer!

:grr:

a fucking CURE! and the fucking FREAKS are fighting it. and it is actually being DEBATED! :argh:

a cure. A FUCKING CURE!

a shot. a little shot. the fucking religious FREAKS say it's immoral.

let me fucking tell YOU what is 'immoral' you fuckwads! watching Mrs Matcom puke her fucking guts out every week as the Chemo destroyed her from the inside. Holding her hair for her so it would stay out of the toilet bowl and not get wet. FIGHTING with her to eat something (ANYTHING) to keep her strength up. Driving her 16 Friday's to the hospital to sit with her for 8 hours while metal was pumped into her body so she could get sick again.

'Come on honey. Time to go! Let's go make you want to fucking die again. We're gonna be late.'

Oh the REAL fun was when I said goodbye as she was locked behind a foot-thick lead door in a Boston hospital for 4 days for her radiation treatment. Oh, it was great to visit everyday for my alotted 5 minutes (any more time and the radiation would have taken over MY body). The best part was literally carrying her across the parking lot after her hospital stay. They didn't want to release her until she stopped throwing up and could walk on her own. But she begged me. PLEADED with me to get her outta there. What could I say? We lied to the nurses to free her.

note to freepers, fuckwads, Pat Robertson, Jerry Fuckwell & the REST of you fucking freaks. I fucking hate you with every ounce of strength I have. Die. Now.

a shot. a fucking shot.

would be no discussion. It would be free and all the men would get it.

I'M SICK.

Because then big pharma and the industrial medical complex would lose money. It isn't a gender thing, it is money.

Plenty of women and children get cancer to make up for the loss of potential men patients.
Have you ever heard of a pharmacist refusing to fill for Viagra? Morning after pill?
That is gender. So is this. It is inhumane by any measure.

vaccine will prevent these cancers in men and women.

:shrug:

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/14741076.htm

Quote:

HPV causes cervical cancer and genital warts and is also linked to penile and anal cancer. The virus is the most common sexually transmitted disease, and the American Cancer Society estimates that HPV affects more than 50 percent of sexually active adults.

The virus, however, has also been found in cancers of the tongue, tonsils and pharynx, said Stuart Wong, an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin who practices at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital.

snip

Gardasil protects against the two types of HPV, 16 and 18, believed responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. It also protects against two other virus types, 6 and 11, that cause 90 percent of genital wart cases. All four virus types are sexually transmitted.

This story is a little twist on this thread, but related all the same. Mr. LD and I have no health insurance. So I've been calling around trying to get prices to see if we can afford to get some insurance on our own. (no luck, its way out of our reach at the moment) However, in speaking to Blue Cross they told me that they would not cover birth control pills. BUT they would cover Viagra if Mr. LD ever needed any. still trying to wrap my mind around that one!

in the aspect that the men would be fighting harder for it than they fight for women's health issues. Don't want to flame and I'n not man bashing, but over the years it has been obvious that there are double standards in health care.

Women who go to a hospital with chest pain are given heartburn medicines and men are hooked up to machines for heart attacks, unless the woman is very, very pushy. Studies are done more often on health issues affecting men than women. It is just a fact.

Those cigarette commercials that claimed "you've come a long way baby" stopped short of how long we haven't come.

I've read about the treatment of women with chest pain vs. men. In one article a woman went into the ER complaining of chest pain and a man was there with the same complaint. He was hooked up to a machine, the woman was told it was gas and told to go home. Turns out it was vice versa, the man had gas and the woman was having an attack and collapsed on the floor of the ER. Luckily, she made it.

I also get a form to fill out at my yearly gyno visit informing me that there is a test that is 98% more effective than a pap for detecting cervical cancer but insurance companies are not covering it :wtf: If you want the test, you have to pay for it out of pocket. You can bet that if it were an updated and improved test for men, the insurance co's would be tripping over themselves to cover it.

No one can ever tell me it's not about gender.

it would make them GAIN money. They should be clamoring to have this released.

ruining this for women.
They want men to enjoy sex and women to be punished by it.

It isn't just sex they want to control. Since women are the life givers, the bozos want control over all of life, coming and going. The Catholic church has always had it. Our bosses want it too. It is very diabolical and has nothing to do with "culture". It is slavery of women.

edit to add: oh and yeah. If it is "sexually transmitted", guess who is transmitting it?

appalled that MEN fucking CONSERVATIVE supposedly religious...Jesus who loves all PRO-LIFE MEN ...are the ones wanting to hold the VACCINE for CANCER from women.

THE FUCKERS. I HATE THEM.

and I really do think I can speak for all men when I say that we all want and think and behave in all the same ways so it is perfectly ok to make sweeping generalizations about us. And in no way does your perception of men reveal anything about yourself.

but, seriously, i doubt their going to make this vaccine "illegal". They'll just make it too expensive to use.

Where did you see the word "men" in the post you replied to? I can't find it, so maybe you can give me directions.

"And in no way does your perception of men reveal anything about yourself."

One could wonder about what is revealed by someone who reads "they" and takes it to mean him and then suggests that something someone else didn't say "reveal"s something (obviously unpleaseant) about the person who didn't say it ... but one won't.

my "perception of men", you might know my "perception of men". That would be about it.
I, however, did not state my "perception of men".

When I said "bosses", I didn't mean YOU.

talking about the male sex.

but, who are the bozo's? who are the one's transmitting those diseases? if you didn't mean men then I have to ask who you were talking about. maybe a little clarification.

sorry about that next to last comment. it was mean (i had a headache at the time) especially if it isn't true. I tried to edit it but the edit period had expired.

Isn't that a bit different than a "cure" for all cancers? And shouldn't it be debated? If this thing is used and causes health problems, there would be hell to pay...


Besides, it was approved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060609/ap_on_he_me/cervical_cancer_vaccine_14

and CNN just ran a story on the "debate"

you see through MY eyes (or more importantly HER eyes) and tell me not to hate the fucking freaks. do it.

...so caution is never a bad thing. And the headline would lead one to believe it was all cancers. If they are debating it for phony "moral" reasons, that's another story. I'm not in the states, so I can't see the debate.

Best wishes for the missus, though.

are on "moral" grounds.

patient... not the fucking government. Ever. If it's available, we should have the choice.

The medical establishment. Who profits from good health....????

The patient and the community.

Who's side are you on.......?????

I am "on the side" of fighting this disease, preventing this disease and offering options for health care providers and patients without interference from the government based on "moral" issues.

...to suggest that your faith in the medical establishment is misplaced. They want your money....

'The government', in any other country but yours, wants public health.

Government run public health systems want you up and working. Private medical business only wants your money.

Are you of the opinion that this vaccine is bad or only to help profit pharmecuetical companies? Whatever. I'm sorry if you feel my "faith" is misplaced, but guess what... the vaccine WORKS regardless of who's pockets are being lined when it's used.

That being said - WE NEED IT AVAILABLE TO WOMEN. NOW.

...I do have my doubts about the efficacy of this "vaccine". That said, I wholeheartedly endorse any 'Cure-All' that the patient believes in....from Laetrile to fondling crystals to power prayer.

My problem with the pharma companies is that they have complete freedom to literally DEFINE your personal health. Through television and other mass media, they define the illness, define the cure and define YOUR public worth.

If they tell you this vaccine works and you believe them, Go for it!! YOUR BELIEF is the critical component.

:eyes:

SAY if their daughter gets a cervical cancer vaccine, she is likely to start sleeping around.
*editorial* These women may stay "chaste" until engagement/marriage. Then they get married, have two or three kids and become frigid housewives. You will find their husbands on the internet "married but looking". Their husbands stay because of the kids. Because there is an undercurrent of un love in their home lives, the children grow up bewildered, not really understanding why. They take one of two courses. Follow in their parents footsteps and create more confusion in the world, ready made automatons, or become promiscuous looking for the love they never felt in the home. And some of them go on trying to police other people's sex lives because they are oh so frustrated and repressed. We need more sex therapists. World Peace.

...I would imagine that cervical cancer is real close to last place.

Fundies are SO stupid.

the scientists at FDA determined it safe some time ago (months?) but the FDA wouldn't approve it on moral grounds.

It is the exact same debate going on over Plan B and making it available over the counter. The scientists at FDA have approved it, the religious freaks there have not.

The deal is, religious types don't want to have to decide whether to vaccinate their teenage daughters. if they do, the daughters will see it as license to go have sex with everyman she sees. If they don't, their daughters might die (and only daughters of liberal parents who got the vaccine will live. That racial/religious/political imbalance will come quicker than imagained.)

And they call us the nanny party. They adopt a moral code which is impossible to live up to then they want it so their daughters might die if they don't live up to it. Adopting a more realistic moral code, teaching their daughters about birth control and how to make moral decisions on their own would be better.

Being referred to in the lead post.

Then I was confused about the male bashing as result.

which is the main suspect in problems with vaccine. The people opposing Gardasil (name of the vaccine) are opposing it because they think girls will become promiscious. In other words people who have sex outside of marriage deserve death. There is no mention of vaccine safety, only teens turning into sex fiends because they won't be at risk for some 80% of HPV infections.

idea that they are punishing women for having sex. Men are free to do as they please. No birth control, no abortion, no vaccine for cervical cancer, and if a woman gets pregnant or gets cervical cancer there's her scarlet letter for all to see. They don't believe in God, they want to be God.

God, I hate these people.

You and Mrs. Matcom will be in my thoughts and prayers.

There are actually groups in the USA - 'Christian' groups - who want to bring back stoning for everything from astrology to unchastity. see here:
http://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5628&abbr=cs_

quote:
As if this were not controversial enough, Christian Reconstructionists also advocate an extreme vision of social policy. Citing passages from the Old Testament Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, many Reconstructionists would institute the death penalty for a number of offenses, among them striking or cursing a parent, adultery, homosexuality, "unchastity," rape of a betrothed virgin, witchcraft, "incorrigible" juvenile delinquency, blasphemy and propagation of "false" religious doctrines. Some favor stoning as the biblically preferred means of execution.

Reconstructionists also argue that the Bible sanctions some forms of slavery and accords women a second-class status. One Reconstructionist writer, Steve Schlissel, has asserted that the "God-ordained order" places "God above all, man joyfully under God, woman lovingly under man, and the animals at bottom."

you wouldn't be exchanging one hell hole for another.... then it may be premature to blast away. Since there was debate but it was passed... looks like maybe there are more people who understand where you are coming from.

No one who has not lost a loved one or seen them change entirely in a battle with cancer can understand your pain. My dad was 6 foot 190 pounds and went down to 90 pounds...but the worst part was having his "ass in a bag" because the VA kept mis-diagnosing his colon cancer as hemroids. He beat the cancer, but he also got his ass handed to him and he wasn't the same afterward.

I can understand why you would hate people who block the kind of scientific advances that could spare someone else from going through the pain you went through. Just remember that when you hate someone it's like taking poison and expecting the other person to die... it doesn't affect them as much as it kills you.

You have every right to be angry and take your time working through it, but eventually give yourself a break and evict the assholes from your mind by refusing to let your resentment become a room they can always come back to...

Not for them... for you and your love... you did say she made it through the ordeal, right? Every minute you spend hating them could be time you spend loving her ... and which is better for your health?

And shouldn't it be debated? If this thing is used and causes health problems, there would be hell to pay...
***********************************************

to debate safety is one thing to debate not giving this to women because they think it will encourage them to become sluts....is a different story that is just sick.

If the virus was sexually transmitted and a man got nut cancer from it how long would we hear them debate not letting men have the cure because it would encouraging them to be sluts?

A debate based on phony "moral" concerns is stupid, irrelevant and unconscionable.

They are debating whether 10 year olds are going to start having sex daily. Which is BULLSHIT.

As if the only reason keeping 10-year-olds from engaging in frequent sexual activity and orgies is the fear of cervical cancer. :eyes:

Sometimes I really wonder, who really believes this stuff?!

I admit that I haven't been following this debate closely, but how does getting a cure for cervical cancer increase sexual promiscuousness?

I'm way confused because originally I thought this thread was about a cure for all cancers and just recently understood that it was about a cure for cervical cancer.

It's a vaccine to keep most kinds of cervical cancer from ever happening.

Yes, it should be debated. The more this is on television, the more people will know that HPV is pervasive among humans and that has almost no symptoms until it causes genital warts or cervical cancer.

I had never heard of HPV until I was diagnosed with cervical neoplaysia. I'm alive because I was lucky enough to have health insurance that allowed me to get an annual pap smear and find this out before it became cancer. Two uncomfortable surgical procedures and I'm fine.

I don't have daughters, but if I did, they would be getting this vaccine ASAP.

often these cervical cancers are not caught by a regular pap smear. It is not found on the face of the cervix, but higher up and can take a special test. These tend to be more aggressive too. So you were doubly lucky. You could get the test and the changes were caught by a pap smear.

The vaccine will prevent two forms of HPV infection that cause 70% of cervical cancers. We'll still need pap smears.

It also immunizes against the two forms that cause cervical warts, which do not cause cancer, just warts.

There's a lot more money curing disease than preventing it. I once read that there were those in the drug industry who panned Jonas Salk for finding a way to prevent polio rather than a way to cure it.

....a bone marrow transplant is what eventually killed him....they don't want to CURE...they want to string you along slowly killing you with their *treatment* and *medication*....feel lucky Mrs. Matcom is alive and well after all that. :(

and it happens to almost everyone, though not always often enough.

:toast:

:hug:

You two have always been favorites of mine.

Tell it brother.

help prevent cervical cancer being debated , which in itself is totally outragious, but I hadn't heard that there's an actual cure for cancer being debated (God/dess but that would be truly wonderful!).

My heart goes out to your wife and you. I've watched and lost a couple dear friends and family members fight cancer (my step-mom actually beat breast cancer back in the 70's) so would really like to know more about any cure that may become available. Would you mind please providing a link about it? TIA.

edited to ask: Is there evidence that the vaccine may also possibly a cure?

done that - I know how you feel.

It's just too bad about your wife, but we are supposed to think that's better than, God forbid!< anyone should become "sexually promiscuous"!!

they don't like the new vaccine that cures or prevents cervical cancer because be it cures a virus that is sexually transmitted...the virus I guess is the actually cause of the cancer and if you cure a sexually transmitted virus in women it will encourage them to be sluts.

they don't like the new vaccine that cures or prevents cervical cancer because be it cures a virus that is sexually transmitted...the virus I guess is the actually cause of the cancer and if you cure a sexually transmitted virus in women it will encourage them to be sluts.

People never cease to amaze me!
They are so rightous they are going to let women die?





You are a great hubby for caring so much for your wife, God Bless You!*
*(which ever God you choose)

have her...I am so Lucky/fortunate

I understand your situation is diff from mine and your anger because of the "cure" being help up because of the silly slut reasoning...dreadful and anguishing...


My heart goes out to you and wife: Chemo and rad therapy is a bitch...

Hang in there Mat...we all love ya....

Come, rant in a beer, good for ya sometimes, :beer:

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzfda0423,0,5604733.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Simon Heller, one of the attorneys, plans to quiz Woodcock about a March 23, 2004, staff memo suggesting she was concerned Plan B might lead to teenage promiscuity.

The FDA is only supposed to consider the safety and efficacy of drugs.

In the memo released by the FDA during the discovery process, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an agency medical officer, wrote: "As an example, she stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B."

You're a good man to stand by her and help her and she's a lucky woman to have a man like you in her life.

:hug:

My husband just finished treatment this past March for Stage 3 oral cancer, which is caused by several things, one of which is the HPV virus linked to cervical cancer. He went through hell during treatment...neck blasted with 39 hits of radiation so he couldn't swallow, sick from chemo.

Any piece of shit, piece of Garbage, Hateful, lying, anti-Christian, puke inspiring Pharasee, scum bucket, puritan that opposed a vaccine that prevents the virus needs to be exiled, where I don't care, but get the fuck out of this still fairly free country, NOW.

These are the same folks that we have to drag kicking and screaming into every single son of a bitching year of progress. They make me ill.

And how dare these horrible evil creatures who would do anything to keep from helping your wife and others suffering like her.

she is cancer free today

4th year of stage four - but no new stuff for last 6 months has been nice.

I totally agree with your rant.

Wow! I'm glad she's doing well, now! You take care of her!
The Professor

to have to go through all of this, she is lucky to have you.

Mine wasn't as advanced as Mrs M's was; I just needed surgery. I'm 100% sure that anyone would rather avoid even the surgeries I had if they could get the three shots.

Lost most of mine nearly 20 years ago. Turned out to have been probably unnecessary -- the earlier small biopsies had apparently got what was there -- but oh well, better safe than sorry!

Back when I was busy getting the virus (the likelihood being that I did, it seems), I don't think anyone even knew about it and the connection to cervical cancer. It was just starting to be understood that women with "multiple partners" were at increased risk.

If they had known, and there had been a vaccine, I can't imagine having parents who gave so little of a damn about my life that they denied me it before I became at risk.

What I don't get is: given that the vaccine is to be made available for 9-year-olds, why would anyone even *tell* the kid what it was for? Do kids get big explanations of what diphtheria is and how it's contracted when they get those shots??

Once all the adolescents who need the shot now get it, it should just become a routine childhood innoculation.

But we must all keep on getting our Paps, of course. Not all cervical cancers are connected with HPV.

:hi:

And normally I just don't do the tacky "welcome to DU!!!!" thang, but I'll make an exception here. ;)

Touch me where I live...and live I will. Mrs Matcom's courage...and your well placed anger....they lift me up.

:hug:

I have a family member who was in treatment for HPV. Thankfully all is well right now, but it sure has opened my eyes to the reality of this issue. I have friends who have survived cervical cancer and been through the pain and hell that your wife has experience. My heart goes out to you. I agree with every word of your post and I am SICKENED beyond belief that anyone would take the BULLSHIT "moral" stance that we are witnessing. I am disgusted that women's health continues to be used as a pawn in their sick little fucking heads.

It's utter bullshit and I will fight for my rights and the rights of all women.

Give your wife a big hug!

Matcom, I had no idea your wife was sick. CMW and I will send her massive healing vibes.

....circumsions can cure homosexuality (see my post in the lounge)

These are also the assholes that do the protesting at the funerals of soldiers even though our local assisine newspaper called them "Anti-War".

Try not to understand their logic because there is none!!

You know we love you and Mrs. Matcom too :D

Have the remaining problems just gotten to complex for our scientists and researchers. Think about how far our technology has come in the past 20 years, DNA, human genome project, etc... yet we seem to cure nothing.

Ow we are great at making new expensive medicines for a person to take, or medicines for Jimmy Legs, that we excel at, but an actual cure.. nada.

Years of education are required & the pay is not spectacular. Yes, the problems ARE more complex. And there's less money for "pure" research. Pharmaceutical companies still manage to do some good work, but we should not depend on them 100%. (duh)

Survival rates for some malignancies have improved considerably over the years. We also know more about preventing malignancies & other diseases. Some come from the environment--why do you think the region from Beaumont to Houston is called The Cancer Coast? We Texans knew about Bush's environmental "policies" before the rest of you. And personal habits cause other problems; it's insane that some people still smoke. (Yes, they are given good care; but lung cancer statistics remain poor.)

However, I share the outrage that a vaccine that actually PREVENTS some cancers has been hampered by political/"religious" considerations.

Some of us would rather not get the disease in the first place than get it and have a chance of being cured ... if it's caught early enough.

She was lucky to have you there with her.

:hug:

Despite the fact that you did not know me you helped me out once with a very nice action. I am sorry to hear that you are having this kind of troubles and it breaks my heart.

Don't let these fundies mess with you. In the end they are self defeating and a thousand times the idealists that the RWers claim many of us are. They will burn out soon enough only to resurge 20 or 30 years later. They always 'revive' in cylces. From Prohibition to getting "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegience. They go away eventually after someone has the common sense to point out their hypocracy (be it in person or through example.) I suppose the next real time they will 'find their calling' after this garbage is against robotics or eugenics or something...

BTW Finally found a job this week (A real job.) Pehaps I can pass forward some of the good Mojo you passed my way a few months back.

is that even if a woman is a virgin on her wedding day she could still get HPV if her husband is not.

My mother, my aunt and I have all had to go through surgery because of HPV. Luckily in all of our cases it was found before it turned into cancer and we are all okay now.

I have a 14 year old daughter so the clock is ticking. I want this vaccine legalized yesterday.

that. What an awful ordeal! :hug:

:loveya:

Now you've done it. The tears and grief of my sister's death came swelling out of me like a tidal wave of pain.

I hear you man - I hear you.

I am very sorry to hear what you and your wife are experiencing. Please accept my best wishes. You are one of my favorite posters here.

If you are referring to the vaccine debate, the vaccine is not a cure, but is a preventative agent. It is completely insane that anyone would debate whether such a vaccine should be provided, immoral really. I imagine that anyone personally experiencing what you are experiencing wants that no one ever experience this needlessly.

I don't know if it helps, but I hate them too.

For the record, the anti-vaccine movement is inhabited almost wholly by people who have had not had direct experience with the disease. To the extent that the polio vaccine has been successful, people now find reasons to oppose it.

My guess is that ignorance deserves contempt.

Best wishes to you and yours. I know something of these sorts of things, and I feel very badly that a person of your and Mrs. Matcom's calibre should endure them.

Best regards and Best Wishes.

..as if it makes a damn bit of difference.

The cervical cancer prevention vaccine should have been LEAD story on every broadcast. This is huge news and wonderful news.

curs who want to keep science in the Dark Ages*

Anything that gets in the way of that is what they are against. I am so sick of people who take HEALTH issues (contraception, addiction, and now freakin' vaccines for an awful form of cancer!) and turn them into moral and legal issues. :banghead:

That reminds me far too much for my liking of my grandfather's experience with liver cancer in the seventies. To think that that kind of suffering can be prevented, were it not for someone's "moral values" objections is unconscionable. False salvation has become some kind of a business to these "religious" leaders, and now they're profiting from human misery. They deserve the worst.



Honestly, I'm halfway tempted to make a bumper sticker or something that reads "Stop cancer! Execute the Religious Right today!" But that's probably illegal. Sums up my sentiments, though.

can be found here

http://www.maketheconnection.org/

Also, on the lefthand side of that page, there's a link to order a bracelet kit. It costs you nothing, and Merck is donating $1 to cervical cancer research and prevention for every one ordered.

It is appalling when you see the 'chemo chambers' where they lie everyone on recliners and pump them full of hope and toxic chemicals that can burn the skin if it touches. Meanwhile, you can't smoke a puff of marijuana to ease the pain and induce the will to eat, but they will sell you a 40 fucking dollar Glaxo pill that they claim does the same thing. Cancer is a MAJOR INDUSTRY. In our society Industry trumps life.

Cancer is such a difficult illness to cope with, for all involved.

Whatever happens, remember, you are doing a wonderful job providing for your wife. But, don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. You can't do it all alone.

on the morality games the right is playing with people's lives.

Real people's lives are at stake, and religious sensibilities be damned. If they don't like this shot, don't get it. But they have no Fucking right to deny it to anyone else.

If this shot prevented prostate cancer you know it would be flying towards approval. It was be hailed in the media everywhere as a miracle. But because it prevents Cervical cancer they have to hem and haw and put all kinds of religiously loaded bullshit into the discussion. It's only women's lives, after all. It's not like they really give a damn about women's lives.

how come I never heard of these freakin' preachers trying to outlaw Viagra?

EARTH TO CONGRESS: we women birthed you, nursed you, and powdered your asses. If you deny us this vaccine, you WILL pay! Our health as women is not some fuck toy you can use to score yourself some "moral" points.

If you goddamned COWARDS don't protect your mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, Mama Earth is gonna kick all of your ASSES!!!!!!!!!!


(at least, that's what She told me this morning)

I hurt with you. Damnit! God damn them. The ignorant goons are dragging us all down.

I'm sorry Matcom. We're in this together. I'm so sorry we have to endure the bullshit. I hope you and Mrs. Matcom find answers and health.

and best thoughts for you and yours.

--Dave

That's all I have to say about this.

With all the humor the both of you bring to the lounge....wow. I had no idea. :cry: She sounds so fucking strong and you...well every person deserves a spouse and a best friend like you.

Having said that, HELL YES! I'm with you 100%.

Vaccine for cervical cancer approved
By Gardiner Harris The New York Times

Published: June 9, 2006


WASHINGTON U.S. drug officials have announced the approval of a vaccine against cervical cancer that could eventually save thousands of lives each year in the United States and hundreds of thousands in the rest of the world.

Called Gardasil, the vaccine guards against cancer and genital warts caused by the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease. It is the culmination of a 15-year effort that began at the National Cancer Institute and a research center in Australia, and health officials described the vaccine as a landmark.

"This is a huge advance," Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the Food and Drug Administration's biologics center, said Thursday. "It demonstrates that vaccines can work beyond childhood diseases to protect the health of adults."

Federal vaccine experts are widely expected to recommend that all 11- to 12-year-old girls get the vaccine, but the vaccine's reach could be limited by its high price and religious objections to its use. Merck, Gardasil's maker, said that a full, three-shot course will cost $360, making Gardasil among the most expensive vaccines ever made.
(snip/...)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/09/news/cancer.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's time the country shook off the death grip of these deranged "religious" sociopaths. We really don't want lunatics making our decisions for us.

Your heart-felt expression on this subject is completely appreciated.

I hate the idea that millions of girls probably won't get this vaccine because of the cost. So many people are uninsured...do we know yet if insurance companies are going to pay for this?

Merck's Cervical Cancer Vaccine Approved in U.S. (Update5)
June 8 (Bloomberg)

~snip~
A committee of the Atlanta-based CDC will make recommendations on the vaccine's use and whether to recommend federal funding through the Vaccines for Children program. The committee next meets on June 29.

The American Academy of Pediatricians would then decide whether to add Gardasil to the schedule of recommended childhood and adolescent vaccinations.

Coverage by private insurance companies will be influenced by what the CDC committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, decides. Each health plan will make its decision, said Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry group in Washington.

Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. insurance company, will cover the vaccine ``according to the advisory committee guidelines,'' said company spokeswoman Lindsay Shearer. How much patients pay would vary depending on their policy, she said.
(snip/)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aSeLOUIPjOpc&refer=us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since it's a new product, there will probably be many adjustments made in the new future to allow some kind of insurance coverage, and if there's any justice, arrangements made for people who can't afford it at all.

One member of that committee (dr. finger) has said he would hesitate to approve a hiv vaccine because it would disinhibit sex.

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road, NE
MS E-05
Atlanta, Georgia 30333


ACIP@CDC.GOV

I know what you are saying. I went through the same thing with my mother.

:hug:

and agree with everything you said 100%. Bastards :mad:

Why can't these people stay out of other people's business????

Godwillnotbepleased.

otherwise they would have loaded up the board and voted it down.

I saw this report yesterday through the haze of my viral infection and couldn't figure out if this was for the cancer that they have the "tell someone" campaign about and then I saw that it needed to be given before a young woman might become sexually active and was shocked that some nut jobs hadn't gotten funding from the Four Sisters to raise a stink about it.

I guess I have come to assume that their whacked out take on things will get airtime.

is raped by a minority, becomes pregnant, and/or develops cervical cancer

I have had to nurse my husband (who did finally go back to his country, basically to die with his family but also because, ironically, in that third-world place he could get affordable health care) through prostate and rectal cancer and severe diabetes and high blood pressure and the ultimate frustration and hopelessness is being unable to do anything about the suffering of someone you love. :cry:

I had no idea! I hope she's doing better - what a HORRIBLE experience for her!:cry:

It's the same fundie freaks who are against stem-cell research. And they have the nerve and audacity to call themselves PRO-LIFE!

I HATE them with every little cell in my body! I HATE THEM!!!!!!:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

This vaccine is so fucking important, I can't find the words. You can bet your left wing ass my two daughters are going to get it, as am I. I will do anything to prevent them from getting a preventable cancer. Anything.

:hug: and i do hear you on the rest of it, we are said to have dominion in this world...so what is the problem, let all the cures come forth

I wish the vax prevented all cancers, but at least it prevents one of them. Of course, it isn't a cure, but vaxes would go a long way!

Screw those who deny women this important health choice.

and make this a political issue while the rich boys continue to hide the fact they've had this cure for decades, and they've been able to keep it classified.

Wake up Matcom. You're smarter than that. Don't buy everything you see at face value.

These guys are cons. Remember what "cons" do. They con.

That sucks about your wife, matcom. But I hear ya, the fundies are nothing but pieces of shit.

Phelps, Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, Warren... they all must die horrible deaths. I hate what they've done to this country, to our lives, to the medical profession. I hate that they're against stem-cell research, against abortion, and think that the worst thing to happen to this country is Ralph and Fred or Betty and Julia getting married. I hate these people with every square inch of my body.

on America? Yesterday on CNN, I saw where three big-time lawsuits were filed... what about those drugs? One, which I can't name now, was the best-selling in the world and the FDA swished it through in record time. Many have died from it but, true to form, medicine mega-corporations could care less and are keeping it in the marketplace simply because they can. I mean, hey, so a few thousand die, as long a gigantic drug companies get rich.

Men die of rectal and anal cancers, often caused by the same strains of the virus. Do you think that some males are transmitting the virus to females? Uh, yes. But a lot of those men who develop HPV related rectal or anal cancersseem to have had some sort of same sex activity once or more in their lifetime. That, or it's just those men who are willing to even be examined for the cancer. We've been fighting for years to get it studied in women and men as well. Let's not forget these people also will do anything to prevent and punish any men who are gay or who have practice sodomy. There are more than a few cures out there that have not moved anywhere for a long time. This is a universal tragedy created by radical sadistic religious freaks coupled with those who don't believe the government should pay for anyone's illness - the GOP Base.

I believe clinical trials are currently underway, as well as with older women.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-08-cancer-vaccine-qa_x.htm

Quote:
A. In men, HPV causes genital warts and has been linked to penile and anal cancer. Plus, of course, men can transmit HPV to women. Merck has tested Gardasil's safety and immune response in 9- to 15-year-old boys and found that they have a slightly better immune response than girls and women, Barr says. "What we don't know yet is whether the vaccine will protect against infection and disease caused by HPV in young men," he says. To answer that question, Merck is conducting a clinical trial in men as old as 26 and expects to complete it in 2008, Barr says.

The wingnuts think that if girls don't get the HPV vaccine, they won't have sex. This is just like the very false view that if teens are taught "abstinence-only" sex ed, sign abstinence pledges and learn nothing about contraception they will not engage in sex before marriage. The truth is that such teens have pre-marital sex a mere one year later than other teens, and they are far less likely to use birth control. Therefore they are at a much higher risk for unwanted pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, HPV and other STDs.

Fundies and reality just don't mix.

From
http://feministing.com/archives/005183.html

The only member of the 15-member panel to publicly state his opinion about making the vaccine routinely available is Reginald Finger. Dr. Finger nominated himself to the ACIP after the ultra-conservative Focus on the Family was asked to provide a list of scientists to nominate for various federal boards. Dr. Finger (sorry, I can’t get over that name) describes himself as a liaison between the CDC and Focus on the Family. He says, “Focus on the Family wants to have good relationships at CDC - and I can help make those happen.”

He has also said that if “people begin to market the vaccine or tout the vaccine that this makes adolescent sex safer, then that would undermine the abstinence-only message.” For the record, Finger would also be wary of approving an HIV vaccine, should one become available.

Sigh. I hope the other 14 members of the ACIP will make their decision based on science and public health. The Family Research Council weighed in at the last ACIP meeting, so you should submit written comments to the ACIP before their June 29 hearing:

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road, NE
MS E-05
Atlanta, Georgia 30333

ACIP@CDC.GOV

please consider sending in your support for this vaccine to increase the chance of insurance companies as well as medicaid covering it! The right wing already has it's own people on this committee so we need to make sure the rest do the right thing.

Our society is doooooomed! DOOOOOMED!

http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/Vaccines/tb/3482
Dr. Paavonen said that the health ministry in Finland is planning to include the HPV vaccine as a standard childhood immunization "so that we may actually eradicate the HPV-related diseases."

...like it's more or less resolved. For the longest time my Pap smears were abnormal and my cervix was inflamed, which meant going in sometimes 3 or 4 times a year, some biopsies along the way and so on. Fortunately (after the initial worry) I was able to put it out of my mind and just schedule the appointments on autopilot, so to speak.

The gyn who first diagnosed it embarrassed the hell out of me by saying it was an STD and laughing about it. He said he was seeing a couple of cases every week among the college coeds (I was a divorced single mom in my early 30s, in a monogamous relationship with the man I later married). At that point in time doctors obviously didn't know about the cancer connection, but I still didn't think it was funny and I soon changed to another doc.

After all this time it looks like I have a strain of HPV that may just hang around not causing much harm, but I will always have my Pap tests however often my doctor recommends.

Two of my nieces in their early 20s have what appears to be a rather aggressive strain. They are more sexually active than I ever was -- not a judgment, just a statement of risk and exposure. It's been very scary for them, and they've both had to have biopsies, which hurt. I know one of them thought she might actually have to have a coning of her cervix, which I think would compromise her ability to carry a baby to term.

I think a vaccine for HPV is a fantastic innovation, and I'd be willing to get it if I thought it was actually a cure and not just a preventive. Even if it turns out not to cure existing cases, just the potential to prevent cancer in a new generation of girls and women is a godsend.

The religious wingnuts' obsession with sex is well-established by now. It is clear that not even the clear and present danger of disease and death dissuades them from their path. Sex education, AIDS education, contraception, the Plan B pill, gay marriage -- every measure that to a rational person spells LIFESAVING is to the wingnuts only another step on the slippery slope of unauthorized recreational sex. They're so obsessed with sex and how to control it...

To Matcom and the Missus I say :grouphug: Thank you for sharing your story. May you both be blessed with health to enjoy the love you share with each other.

... Getting back to your subject line: Wouldn't it be nice if fucking actually did cure cancer? ;-)

Hekate

I just don't understand how they can object to this vaccine on moral grounds. What's moral about not protecting a daughter, a sister, your mother or your own wife? Or any female member of your family?

Not all sex is consentual. Don't they realize this? Can someone explain their attitude to me, please, because I just don't get it.

My cousin was just diagnosed with HPV, and they told her it was a low risk type, but the chance of developing cervical cancer is something she should always watch out for. I am doubly worried because there has been both cervical & breast cancer in our family. Is there any source you would recommend to get the best information on HPV. I want to be as supportive as I can for her. Thanks.

matcom, had to deal with 2 family members, one with cervical cancer & the other breast cancer. It can be so hard, heartbreaking for the ones going thru it themselves & those who care for them. I can only say, to both you & your wife, you are in my thoughts & prayers.

"Women's health + HPV treatment" took me to some sites such as National Women's Health Resource Center, Medicine.net, Womens Health Matters, and the like. They look like they'll be good. A current edition of "Our Bodies Ourselves" will no doubt also be valuable.

The sponsored links on the right hand side of the screen looked pretty dubious to me, though -- non-medical "cures" and promises of being symptom-free frankly bother me.

• Genital warts are not going to go away with some product you pick up in the grocery or health food store. I've had the "regular" kind of warts off and on since I was a teenager -- barefoot kids get plantar warts on their feet -- and some of them took 10-15 years of freezing, burning, and acid before finally disappearing for good (I hope).

• As far as symptoms go HPV is not like genital herpes, which is painful. As far as I can tell one of the biggest problems with having genital HPV is you DON'T usually have bothersome symptoms, so unless you are seeing a gynecologist you don't know that you might be getting into danger.

Some of the best written information I got early on was from a rack of brochures in the low-cost medical clinic I went to for awhile. The clinic was located in an area where mostly college students lived, and the reading material dealt largely with STDs and was very straightforward. (I don't see those handouts in my current gynecologist's office, come to think of it, but the clientele is older and more settled -- she's very thorough and does one-on-one patient education during exams.) Depending on where you live, you may have to phone around for this kind of patient information, but I'd start with Planned Parenthood.

I think the best line of defense is simply to keep vigilant about annual exams with a good gynecologist -- or more often, if recommended. That and using a condom to prevent getting another strain of HPV or something more serious. This new vaccine seems like such a promising turn of events that I hope it will be available soon to people like your cousin.

I don't know how helpful this has been, but your cousin has my sympathy. And to think my generation thought The Pill was the answer to everything!

Hekate

If vaccines are available they won't be able to use HPV as a threat to try to scare kids abstenent.

Some good links on HPV in general

Planned Parenthood
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/sti/fact-HPV-virus.xml

CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

Medline at NIH
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hpv.html

hope they are of help....

If a girl or woman is raped, even in if she is a member of their own family, their twisted mindset is that 'she was asking for it', so cervical cancer is her punishment.

The fundamentalists want to block this vaccine because they believe the disease reduces the chances for a woman to have sex...? Couldn't the same be said of polio? Allowing religious fanatics to define one end of the debate is lunacy. This is honestly the most tortured "reasoning" I've ever heard.

Young teenage girls for an STD will encourage them to be promiscuous.

Misogynous creeps.

That said, the rest of your post describes it well.

I hate these motherfuckers with every cell of my being.

It requires no Chemo, no radiation, no vomiting, and no loss of hair. It is a vaccine like measles vaccine.

I lost a friend to Ovarian cancer ten years ago. There isn't a vaccine for that one. She lived alone. The hospital wouldn't wait for her to quit throwing up. They sent her home weak and sick and alone. Fortunately, she had friends and a brother.

A day or two after Christmas, she went to her doctor complaining of flu like symptoms. He told her she had the flu, to come back if it wasn't better in two weeks. Two weeks later she went back because she wasn't any better. Her doctor told her it must be a stubborn strain of the flu. Two weeks later she was bloated and found breathing difficult. Her doctor sent her to a pulmonary specialist who couldn't find any reason for her to have breathing difficulties. She asked if it could be because she was so bloated. That triggered the tests which found her cancer.

She had the symptoms an entire month before she was diagnosed. The cancer was aggressive. It had spread quickly. She had surgery to try to remove it. They couldn't get it all. She started chemo. The hair fell out almost immediately. My mother made hats for my friend. One hat was a pretty beret that came down a little further than most berets. The other hats were two piece. They started with a colorful kerchief then, when she went out, there was a matching stiff brim on elastic that would fit over the kerchief to make it look like a one piece sun hat. It boosted her spirits. She wore one of them almost constantly.

We would take turns spending the night with her for about eight to ten days after each chemo. The hospital sent her home almost as soon as the IV quit dripping. She was so weak and sick. There is no way she could have survived chemo if we hadn't made sure she had nourishment when we could get her to eat. Most of the time she couldn't eat the first few days, she couldn't hold it down. The cure was almost as bad as the cancer. Just as soon as she felt better, it was time for another bag of Chemo. (I think it was called Taxol, or Tamaxol I don't really remember now.) After a few treatments, she started feeling the nausea as soon as she was driven up to the hospital.

After about four months of this, she found herself bloated again. More surgery. The doctor said it was like a sunburst inside of her. In spite of the chemo, the cancer was everywhere. All we had left was to make the best of her time remaining. We called to chat, we visited. Sometimes we all came over at once and it was like a big impromptu party for her. We did our best to entertain her. As time went by she weakened. She slept more and more. Fortunately, she was not in a lot of pain.

The end of July, she silently slipped away in the middle of the night. She had survived seven months since her first symptoms.

Ovarian Cancer isn't the same as cervical cancer and there isn't a known way to prevent it. I can only guess that living (and maybe dying) with cervical cancer would be very similar to living (and dying) with Ovarian Cancer.

All girls can be vaccinated against a common cause of Cervical cancer. The drug should not be held hostage by right wing radical preachers. They shouldn't have any say what-so-ever. When they get a cervix, they can have an opinion, but not a decision on making the vaccine legal. They are not elected and therefore do not have the authority to make national policy.

A yearly pap smear can help detect endometrial displasia, a precursor to endometrial cancer. Displasia can be cured with hormone pills. Any bleeding after menopause needs to be checked out by the Gyno.

(Check www.snopes.com before writing anything about a PSA test for women)

Sorry, I was correcting spelling and the thing automagically posted.