Thank you for writing this important post. My dad died, at age 91, two months ago. He had essential thrombocytosis and a platelet count that was just above the maximum of the normal range.
Rather than recommending palliative care—which to me seemed like the obvious choice—his oncologist pushed hard for him to take strong drugs. She starte…
Thank you for writing this important post. My dad died, at age 91, two months ago. He had essential thrombocytosis and a platelet count that was just above the maximum of the normal range.
Rather than recommending palliative care—which to me seemed like the obvious choice—his oncologist pushed hard for him to take strong drugs. She started him on hydroxyurea, which put him in the hospital with extremely high fevers that began a few hours after every time he took a dose. After three hospitalizations, we begged the oncologist to take him off the drug, so she put him on Jakafi instead. This drug cost $13,000 per month, of which my parents’ share was $3200. While it didn’t cause high fevers, it made my dad so fatigued that he slept more than 20 hours per day. He also experienced delirium. We finally prevailed on his doctor to agree to stop all the drugs, and he died a week later. I am convinced that the trauma from the drugs’ side-effects shortened my dad’s life. Before starting the drugs, he was fit and sharp. He enjoyed doing all his own yard work, spending time with friends, and even golfing.
After my dad died, a friend who is an oncology nurse told me that oncologists not only receive kickbacks from pharma companies for prescribing their drugs, but they get bonuses if they can keep the patients on the drugs. This may explain the hard-sell our family was subjected to every time we protested that the drugs were making my dad worse. In plain language, the pharma companies incentivize doctors to push drugs on patients like my dad, who don’t benefit from them and may even be harmed by them.
I am grateful that you are using your platform to speak out against these perverse incentives, Dr. Prasad.
Thank you for writing this important post. My dad died, at age 91, two months ago. He had essential thrombocytosis and a platelet count that was just above the maximum of the normal range.
Rather than recommending palliative care—which to me seemed like the obvious choice—his oncologist pushed hard for him to take strong drugs. She started him on hydroxyurea, which put him in the hospital with extremely high fevers that began a few hours after every time he took a dose. After three hospitalizations, we begged the oncologist to take him off the drug, so she put him on Jakafi instead. This drug cost $13,000 per month, of which my parents’ share was $3200. While it didn’t cause high fevers, it made my dad so fatigued that he slept more than 20 hours per day. He also experienced delirium. We finally prevailed on his doctor to agree to stop all the drugs, and he died a week later. I am convinced that the trauma from the drugs’ side-effects shortened my dad’s life. Before starting the drugs, he was fit and sharp. He enjoyed doing all his own yard work, spending time with friends, and even golfing.
After my dad died, a friend who is an oncology nurse told me that oncologists not only receive kickbacks from pharma companies for prescribing their drugs, but they get bonuses if they can keep the patients on the drugs. This may explain the hard-sell our family was subjected to every time we protested that the drugs were making my dad worse. In plain language, the pharma companies incentivize doctors to push drugs on patients like my dad, who don’t benefit from them and may even be harmed by them.
I am grateful that you are using your platform to speak out against these perverse incentives, Dr. Prasad.
You’ll never see an oncologist taking their own drugs should they get cancer☠️
Certainly not if they’re 91 and basically doing ok!