Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Documents Reveal Congressional Advocacy On Behalf Of Controversial Cancer Doctor
From 2011 to 2016, 37 members of Congress wrote to the Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to grant constituents access to Stanislaw Burzynski's cancer treatment. Critics say that congressional advocacy is giving the doctor unearned legitimacy and the patients a false sense of hope for a treatment that has been cited as potentially fatal to those who partake in the treatment.
The call to Congressman Ted Yoho鈥檚 office was a matter of life and death: A constituent was seeking help for a 5-year-old great-nephew who was suffering from a terrible brain tumor. Could the Florida Republican push the Food and Drug Administration to give the boy access to an unapproved drug聽treatment聽that the caller had heard would help?聽...聽The treatment, developed by a controversial Texas doctor named Stanislaw Burzynski to treat a rare form of cancer, has never been shown to be successful. Yet, for years, patients have continued to seek Burzynski out, and to ask their representatives in Congress to intervene on their behalf. 聽(Kaplan, 8/29)
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