GORDON HASTINGS

Last night on the NBC Nightly News Chief Science Reporter Robert Bazell reported on the  controversy surrounding the breast cancer drug Avastin. No one in television news has better qualifications to report on this subject.

The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy is a national organization based in Connecticut that funds research and clinical trials to find new treatments for Cancer through cell therapy. acgtfoundation.org  The organization has in excess of $25-million dollars invested in  cancer gene and cell therapy research. 

 A friend at ACGT brought to my attention an important book, written 15 years ago by NBC’s Chief Scientific Journalist Robert Bazell. The work is Her2 The Making of Herceptin, A Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer. Her2 is the name of the cancer-causing gene.The bookrenews its relevance in light of the current controversy over FDA withdrawal of Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer.

 Her 2is the story of the development of the breast cancer treatment drug Herceptin. Herceptin developed and manufactured by Genentech, the same company that is making news today with Avastin, whichwas taken to human clinical trials and made available to cancer patients after a long and arduous process. It took a similar frustrating period to gain FDA approval and bring Herceptin to market. The FDA has withdrawn Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer, and emotions ran high as the FDA listened to testimony from patients. “I owe my life to Avastin,” said Patricia Howard, age 66, of New York, who has been treated for breast cancer since 2005. “I’m not just a piece of anecdotal evidence. I’m a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, and grammy.”  Sadly, you will find dozens of similar quotations in Her2 before it was made available to terminally ill cancer patients.

If you have a personal connection with breast cancer, I urge you to read Her2, The Making of Herceptin.  Bazell places in laser focus the science, politics, ego’s, emotion   corporate bureaucracy, jealously and the economics of getting a drug from the laboratory to market. “I owe my life to Avastin,” said Patricia Howard, age 66, of New York, who has been treated for breast cancer since 2005. “I’m not just a piece of anecdotal evidence. I’m a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, and grammy.”  Sadly, you will find dozens of similar quotations in Her2 before it was made available to terminally ill cancer patients.

When you read Her2,you will recognize in the Herceptin story the same emotions and find it difficult not to share the frustration of those who were desperately waiting for the drug to become available along with those scientists who believe in the drug and are anxious to make it available.

Robert Bazell continues to make a vital contribution to public understand with both his writing and  television reporting.