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The emotional trial of clinical trials: like online dating with death risk

Part 1 is mostly about what happened as Bess and I raced against tumor growth to find a new clinical trial that might keep me alive. Part 2 is mostly about how this process feels and what could be …

I thought we were so smart and so well-prepared: Bess and I knew that, if I’m to stay alive, I’d need to swiftly pivot to another clinical trial the moment petosemtamab failed to control the eight squamous cell carcinoma tumors in my neck and lungs. Bess wrote the definitive guide on how to do just that; I’ve written about the extensive work we did between November and January, establishing care at additional hospital systems and even flying out to MD Anderson (MDA) in Houston, to make sure that we’d be ready—just like the French were ready to confront the Germans at the Maginot Line[1] in 1940. [6] One reader suggests: “The Hippocratic oath may be incompatible with capitalism if shareholders continue to be prioritized over the researchers who desperately need this data in order to make informed decisions for patients like me.” My view is different: the FDA rules that drive and create this insane process are imposed by government.

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