Treatment in San Francisco
One part of the conversation during my 10/15/2007 interview with Dr. Venook had to do with scientific integrity. His assistant had given me a 16-page consent document to read and sign before entering the study. I read it carefully at home, and then read it aloud in the car when Pascale was driving us up to San Francisco.
Part of the document indicated that the Novartis pharmaceuticals company was funding the study and therefore they would have access to all the data. This created a dilemma for me. I was not concerned about the data access, but I assumed that since Novartis is funding the study, then it must be true that all three drugs in the experimental cocktail must come from that same drug company. Wouldn’t it be better, I thought, if the scientific investigators had the whole worlds’ pharmacopeia at its disposal, not just one company’s?
When I brought up this concern to Dr. Venook, he stiffened a little and disabused me of incorrect assumptions. He said that only one of the three components in his experimental chemo is manufactured by Novartis. More important, he assured me that all his decisions in the design of the experiment are based on science. I apologized for the misimpression and promised to call him Galileo Venook from then on.
On Monday, October 22, Pascale took me to SF for the last set of tests required before starting the experimental chemo. The first test was a CT-profusion scan for which I had to fast. It is a precise measurement of the state of the liver that was administered by Dr. Yeh, a professor of radiology, not a technician. It took about 30 minutes, though it had been advertised as a 45-minute test. The second test was a routine electrocardiogram, administered by a technician in 5 minutes. It turns out that the short duration of the CT-profusion was due to a miscommunication between a technician and the doctor. They had skipped a portion of my body. So just as I about to sit down to lunch with my San Francisco-based friend, Michael Farmer, I got an urgent call from UCSF asking me to come back. Dr. Yeh himself was there to greet me and offered a truly sincere apology. In a way, I wonder if this mishap is a good thing – I can hope the radiology department will be watching out for me and be extra careful.
On 10/24/07, I had my first taste of the new cocktail. Again, there were administrative screw-ups, as the people in the lab did not know I had a port from which I wanted them to take my blood, and when I informed them, the word got to only half the people who needed to know. I am already aware of the difference in atmosphere between my sweet hometown hospital in Monterey and a great research hospital (UCSF came out as the seventh best hospital in the US in the recent US News and World Report ranking at http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/honorroll.htm ) Happily, the new cocktail went down uneventfully, and I felt fine afterwards.
My trips to SF have been aided by some good friends. Pascale and I spent a night at the home of Julie Ward and James Drew and their incredibly sweet children. Julie is one of the best cooks I know and she says I am one of the most appreciative eaters. She made a plum tart for dessert that without a doubt had some heavenly guidance from my grandmother.
On the day of the first chemo tasting, Pascale was down with the flu and my good friend and colleague Kevin Wood drove me up. It was an extremely generous thing for him to do and quite enjoyable to have his company.
Part of the document indicated that the Novartis pharmaceuticals company was funding the study and therefore they would have access to all the data. This created a dilemma for me. I was not concerned about the data access, but I assumed that since Novartis is funding the study, then it must be true that all three drugs in the experimental cocktail must come from that same drug company. Wouldn’t it be better, I thought, if the scientific investigators had the whole worlds’ pharmacopeia at its disposal, not just one company’s?
When I brought up this concern to Dr. Venook, he stiffened a little and disabused me of incorrect assumptions. He said that only one of the three components in his experimental chemo is manufactured by Novartis. More important, he assured me that all his decisions in the design of the experiment are based on science. I apologized for the misimpression and promised to call him Galileo Venook from then on.
On Monday, October 22, Pascale took me to SF for the last set of tests required before starting the experimental chemo. The first test was a CT-profusion scan for which I had to fast. It is a precise measurement of the state of the liver that was administered by Dr. Yeh, a professor of radiology, not a technician. It took about 30 minutes, though it had been advertised as a 45-minute test. The second test was a routine electrocardiogram, administered by a technician in 5 minutes. It turns out that the short duration of the CT-profusion was due to a miscommunication between a technician and the doctor. They had skipped a portion of my body. So just as I about to sit down to lunch with my San Francisco-based friend, Michael Farmer, I got an urgent call from UCSF asking me to come back. Dr. Yeh himself was there to greet me and offered a truly sincere apology. In a way, I wonder if this mishap is a good thing – I can hope the radiology department will be watching out for me and be extra careful.
On 10/24/07, I had my first taste of the new cocktail. Again, there were administrative screw-ups, as the people in the lab did not know I had a port from which I wanted them to take my blood, and when I informed them, the word got to only half the people who needed to know. I am already aware of the difference in atmosphere between my sweet hometown hospital in Monterey and a great research hospital (UCSF came out as the seventh best hospital in the US in the recent US News and World Report ranking at http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/honorroll.htm ) Happily, the new cocktail went down uneventfully, and I felt fine afterwards.
My trips to SF have been aided by some good friends. Pascale and I spent a night at the home of Julie Ward and James Drew and their incredibly sweet children. Julie is one of the best cooks I know and she says I am one of the most appreciative eaters. She made a plum tart for dessert that without a doubt had some heavenly guidance from my grandmother.
On the day of the first chemo tasting, Pascale was down with the flu and my good friend and colleague Kevin Wood drove me up. It was an extremely generous thing for him to do and quite enjoyable to have his company.
posted by Rick Rosenthal | 10:54 PM
1 Comments:
I regret to write that Rick Rosenthal died on January 3. May he rest in peace.
http://www.informs.org/article.php?id=1341
http://www.nps.edu/technology/video/index.asp
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