Prostate cancer vaccine costs $93K

angelcake · 2010-11-15T23:45:14+00:00

It's not a vaccine, it's not a cure, it's a treatment, at least that's what I got from the article. It doesn't prevent prostate cancer. What it seems to do is give up to four more months of life to sufferers who have no other hope. If they are four more months where the patient can enjoy his life then great but if it's simply extending some poor soul's suffering so his family doesn't have to say goodbye quite so soon? I would say the same thing if it was offered for ovarian cancer or any of the other killers out there.

2010-11-15T20:17:58+00:00

Just as a reminder here - if you are tempted to say something snarky about the pink-ribbon breast cancer campaign marginalizing men's issues here - remember that the far better way of voicing your opinion is to donate to prostate cancer research instead.

neofool · 2010-11-15T22:34:21+00:00

we have a vaccine! thats definitely a first step

NiceGuysSTFU · 2010-11-16T00:23:39+00:00

It just recently got FDA approval, which, if I remember correctly, is often why prices are so high. Whatsmore, it is my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) that private insurance carriers often base their coverage on what the CMS decides.

PROVENGE is made from your own immune cells. Your cells will be collected at a cell collection center approximately 3 days before each scheduled infusion of PROVENGE. There can be risks associated with the cell collection process, which you should discuss with your doctor before deciding to begin treatment with PROVENGE.

No wonder it is so expensive. I hope advances continue to be made.

neofool · 2010-11-16T07:12:51+00:00

The decision to spend almost 100K in order live another four months involves an unholy arithmetic. Medicare/Medicaid has to decide if four months is worth the investment. Hopefully they will decide in the affirmative but I have my doubts.

2010-11-16T21:30:18+00:00

I don't really think this is about men's rights. It is a problem, but very separate from being a men's rights issue. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong. This is simply a cost benefit analysis. I don't really think 4 months is worth that price. I don't believe the argument that "human life shouldn't be talked in terms of money" is very responsible either. I don't think something like this could be afforded on a mass scale, whether we keep the current system of private insurers (which I don't like) or switch to public health care. As time goes on more people will be living longer and new medical techniques are going to come out that could be used to prolong life. It is not unlikely that these new techniques will progressively become more expensive and thus prohibitive. At some point we as a society will have to make a decision and that is whether we want irresponsibly spend money to enable short prolonging of life and bankrupt ourselves in the process or make the tough decision that you know in some cases it isn't in societies best interest to spend this much money keeping someone alive for a couple of months. If it isn't done in this particular case then another and another and another will eventually come along and at some point the tough decision will be made.

Title	Prostate cancer vaccine costs $93K
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	11
Comments	11
Date	November 15, 2010 3:38 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/e6ew0/prostate_cancer_vaccine_costs_93k/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/prostate-cancer-vaccine-costs-93k.1045963 https://theredarchive.com/post/1045963

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