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Archives | (March 2003)
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FEDERAL FRANKENSTEINS: PART ONE
ARE CLINICAL TRIALS BREEDING FEDERAL FRANKENSTEINS? (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 8 of 9 A MOUNTING DEATH TOLL IS IGNORED AGAIN Dr. Kaplan, head of the IRB again voiced his objections to the experiment and his concerns about financial conflicts of interest. Slapped down by officials at The Hutch, Kaplan was told he should worry about the researchers keeping their jobs. Instead of shutting down Protocol 126, it was tweaked one more time and allowed to continue. So did the deaths. Elizabeth Almedia, a 35-year old woman had been treated with repeated courses of chemotherapy, but her cancer kept coming back. At the moment, however, she was in remission. Her doctor had told her that it would probably come back again, and that her best chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately, she had a perfect donor match: her brother. Filled with hope, she traveled to Seattle. Arriving at The Hutch, she was given an informed consent document for Protocol 126. It didn’t mention the possibility of death from the procedure. It didn’t say anything about alternatives. It said that graft failure was possible, but didn’t say anything about the failure rate of second transplants. Although she arrived at The Hutch in good health, that condition didn’t last long. She never fully recovered from the chemotherapy and radiation that proceed a bone-marrow transplant. While she was still suffering the side effects, her transplant was rejected. Her leukemia returned. She died. Becky Wright was next. Suffering from myelogenous leukemia she was told that although she was currently in remission there was a 15% chance her cancer would return within three years. Worse, her doctor said, chemotherapy was not an option. The only chance she had was a bone-marrow transplant, but with such a procedure she stood a 50/50 chance of survival. She and her husband traveled to Seattle. Although she was told the transplant could fail, she was also left with the impression that a second transplant would solve the problem. No mention was made of the 95% failure rate of second transplants. They also did not tell her that the chance of a relapse within two and a half years was 100% with Protocol 126 – four times the normal rate! In fact, eight patients in Protocol 126 had already suffered relapses before Becky arrived in Seattle. More fortunate than some of Protocol 126’s victims, Becky’s transplant took hold. But a year later a check up revealed her cancer had returned. A second transplant was attempted, but this time Becky didn’t beat the odds. Protocol 126 had another victim. |
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