Super ……… when Provenge is finally approved, after three years of senseless, needless delay by the FDA

Cali ……… where long time dendreon investors celebrate the advancement of science at the San Francisco Annual Shareholder Meeting

Fragilistic ……… the egos and the dynasty otherwise known as the FDA

Expeditious ali docious ……… Not expeditious in British

Even though the sound of it makes FDA sound quite atrocious!

Super-Cali-Fragil-Istic-Espi-Ali-Docious!

In loving memory of all those who participated in the Provenge trials and all those who could not receive Provenge for the past three years!

Citizens have a right to demand change from the FDA!

Before and after approval Care To Live will continue its goal of seeking a more patient oriented and citizen friendly humanity at the FDA.

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CareToLive has just learned Alison Martin no longer works at NCI. Remember her? She helped Howie Scher write his leaked letter. She now works for the Melanoma Research Alliance. Check out their website. It will be fully up and running on August 19th.

http://www.melanomaresearchalliance.org/

This is a new organization found under the auspices (patronage; support; sponsorship) of the Michael Milken Institute. It intends to support ambitious and innovative projects from both individual scientists and research teams to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues relevant to pathways governing the behavior and clinical outcome of melanoma.

Skin cancer represents the most commonly diagnosed malignancy, surpassing lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer.
Even though it is rare, malignant melanoma is responsible for 75 % of all skin cancer related death cases

Meanwhile, back at the NCI ranch, we tried to pursue the missing gaps in the FOIA documents, namely, Scher’s “personal” e-mail. Under the rules, we can’t have his personal letter if it has his mother’s maiden name, his social security number, his phone number, home address, etc. Well what we learned is, this e-mail has his personal opinion. Did he say bad things about the Advisory Committee, its panelists, the patients who made public statements, CBER, Dendreon and Provenge? Did he brag how Asentar and GVAX and Abiraterone are better options? We want to know. Personal information and personal opinion are two different things, especially when that opinion influences a decision.

You can view the NCI FOIA documents here:

http://caretolive.com/NCI-FOIA-Response.pdf

Well, NCI tells us that since Alison Martin no longer works there, and since Scher doesn’t work for NCI, they do not have to turn over the e-mail. Can you believe that? What Alison Martin did when she worked for NCI should be fair game. Our tax dollars paid for that “work”. And what Scher, the most conflicted doctor on the Advisory Committee panel, had to say is most relevant in why he fought so hard to stop Provenge from being approved. We are sure he didn’t ask Alison Martin her bra size because it appears she forwarded the e-mails to Howard Streicher. We will continue to pursue this.

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The Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati, Ohio has granted the request of CareToLive to present oral argument in Appeal No. 07-4465 which is the appeal of the Southern District of Ohio Court decision (case # 07-729).

Oral arguments will be heard on July 29th at 1:30 pm at the Potter Stewart United States Court House, 100 East Fifth St., Cincinnati, Ohio.

Argument will be before a three judge panel. The identity of the three judge panel will not be identified until two weeks before the oral argument date.

Also, Thanks to all the participants that helped make the first ever Coast to Coast prostate cancer demonstrations a huge success!

Continue Reading CareToLive v. FDA — Sixth Circuit Court Grants Oral Argument in Appeal! »

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I will try to keep this brief to give a short overview of the situation. The facts are out there for anybody who wants to examine this further. You may also email us for further info.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Q0uQAL_YDA Video of Care To Live member Ted Girgus taken at our nationwide protest in Seattle. Ted has stage IV prostate cancer, that has metastacized to his bones. Ted and his doctor, want him on Provenge NOW! (More videos and photos coming soon)

Who We Are

Care To Live is a non profit group, who formed for the sole purpose of challenging the current status quo of the prostate cancer standard of care for end stage prostate cancer. We are trying to prod our fda, our government, our medical community, our advocacy groups, and our investment firms, into embracing the better science of immunotherapy, and to consider the people first, over their profits.

Neither the Board of Directors, nor any Care To Live member or friend, including our Attorney, Kerry Donahue, receive any salary. We are volunteers from around the world, who care about the health and well being of people everywhere and are concerned that there are better treatment options which are being overlooked. We saw the immunotherapy Provenge, and what it can do, and we feel it is our duty to stand up and fight for it. It is not easy to challenge and change the current entrenched cancer treatment options. Many of us are dedicated to stay at this until Provenge is approved. We want better, safer, more humane treatments, NOW!

We are funded by small contributions from people who want to promote Provenge and Immunotherapy as a standard of care in fighting cancer. We are joined by a few great advocacy groups who support us, such as Abigail-Alliance, A Right To Live, and the Cancer Cure Coalition. We did get some additional support from Us Too, but by and large we are mostly ignored by the advocacy groups. We can only surmise that they must perceive immunotherapy as a threat to their personal agendas.

The beauty of Care To Live is that they cannot buy our silence, and they know we will never sell out for any price. We are determined to see immunotherapy brought into the 21st century.

Dendreon, the company that discovered the immunotherapy Provenge’s targeted antigen cassette delivery system, also has similar treatments in their sight for breast, colon, ovarian, lung, kidney, and cervical cancers, etc.

Are there any treatments for end stage prostate cancer?

One new treatment has been approved by our FDA in 43 years. It is a chemotherapy, which is so toxic, that most men who understand the consequences of taking it, refuse to do so. Some men will die directly as a result of the treatment. If it is successful they can expect a life extension of an extra 2 1/2 months filled with extra pain and suffering due to the severe side effects of the chemotherapy, as the cancer and the chemotherapy ravish their bodies.

What is Provenge?

Provenge is a non invasive, non toxic, targeted immunotherapy which utilizes one’s healthy cells to fight end stage prostate cancer. It is administered in 3 infusions as an outpatient using one’s own white blood cells, to mount an attack against the cancer. Some men are living as long as 7 years after the three treatments they received 7 years prior. The side effects are usually limited to a day or two of fever and chills as your body builds up an immune response.

Can I get Provenge?

No.

Provenge went before the FDA over a year ago to apply for a license. They spent years consulting with the FDA who granted Continue Reading Denial is a River of Blood at the FDA »

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On Wednesday, April 16th, we wanted to beat the Pope mobile and his crowd so we left early and arrived in Rockville at 4:30 AM. At 4:45 plenty of FDA people had already reported for work and the parking lot was 1/3 full. We decided to protest earlier than the 7 AM we had originally planned.

We went and grabbed some coffee and got our signs ready and started protesting at 5:45. We were able to give out our latest ad and some copies of the Rockville Gazette which the folks took inside the FDA Building.

We were able to raise some more awareness as we shouted things like:

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Another CareToLive member has died.
Read his son’s sad story in Today’s Rockville Gazette!
The FDA hasn’t responded to our Citizens Petition!
The FDA hasn’t turned over all the documents we requested under the Freedom Of Information Act!
This is an emergency, FDA!
83 Men Die every day in America from prostate cancer!
Help us out FDA!!

Click here to see the video!

A third CareToLive member joined us at 7 AM. The three of us handed out all of our copies of the ad, Continue Reading CareToLive Returns To Rockville »

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This is Week #3 of our “In Your Face” Rockville Gazette Advertising Campaign to raise awareness to the tragedy that is taking place in the prostate cancer community. While 83 men die every day of prostate cancer, the FDA sits on our Petition, and refuses to reverse their fatal decision to delay Provenge to the 30,000 men who might have benefitted from it, each year.

Continue Reading We’re Going Back To The FDA Tomorrow Wednesday 4/16/08 »

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CareToLive Ad Full Page Color 8.5 ” x 11″ (click here)

CareToLive Ad Full Page Black and White 8.5″ x 11″ (click here)

1/2 Page Rockville Gazette Newspaper Ad (Actual Size) 5.638″ x 11″ (click here)

Copy of this 4/2/08 Press Release (click here)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADVOCACY GROUP “CARE TO LIVE” BEGINS LATEST CAMPAIGN

CareToLive Continues To Enlighten the World to the Dastardly Deeds of the FDA

Starting today, Wednesday April 2, 2008, CareToLive has begun the process of placing weekly advertisements in the Rockville Gazette, in Rockville, Maryland. These ads will contain letters from patients, families of patients or physicians. New letters will appear each week until the FDA does the humane thing and approves Provenge for the patients. The letters will also be distributed by volunteers on the streets of Rockville and on the internet.

CareToLive highlights the FDA’s blatant refusal to allow access to Provenge to men who are dying from late stage prostate cancer.

The letters will be heartfelt appeals to the humanity of the FDA, who even now, after being provided with the evidence that the Provenge BLA process was corrupted, do nothing to remedy it.

The FDA continues to refuse to follow its own rules regarding Citizens’ Petitions and refuses to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. Eighty four (84) men die every day while the FDA argues it needs 20 more months to provide simple documents to CareToLive and more than 8 months have passed without action on the CareToLive Citizens’ Petition.

First the citizens of Rockville, the home of the FDA, will further awaken to the travesty that occurred in their town that resulted in the denial of Provenge to 26,000 AIPC patients who have since died. Next the world will know.

More at www.CareToLive.com.

###

Popularity: 15%

January 22, 2008 By Evelyn Pringle Part I
Exposé on the FDA and the drug industries desire to keep better treatments from the marketplace to protect their profit turf (click this link to read full article)
Washington, DC: The cancer industry derives most of its profits from chemotherapy. Both the drug companies and the treatment providers profit from the chemotherapy drugs and the medications used to combat the side effects. The obscene profits made off chemotherapy override any incentive to find a cure or better treatments. … A 2001 study by the National Institute of Health found that about a third of Medicare beneficiaries received chemotherapy in the last six months of their lives, even through their cancer was unresponsive to chemotherapy, which “strongly suggests overuse of chemotherapy at the end of life,” the report said. … A most despicable example of how far the chemotherapy industry will go to protect profits, involves an elaborate plot to stop a new class of immunotherapies from entering the market. These new products stimulate the body’s own immune system to attack only cancer cells. … The conflicts of interest of these doctors could not be more obvious. The top recipients of public and private cancer research funding in the US include Dr Pazdur’s previous employer of 11 years, the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, Dr Scher’s current employer, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Dr Hussain’s Cancer Center at the University of Michigan.

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See if you can spot Dr. Noah Prostate during the Provenge Now march on Washington. His identity has been kept secret up until now. Dr. Noah Prostate has contacted CareToLive and has agreed to reveal his identity in 1 week if we get enough diggs so our blog doesn’t get buried. He is trying to reach out to men with prostate cancer in time to help us to help them by organizing to overturn this unprecedented decision by the dysfunctional FDA to delay approval of a treatment in a life threatening disease voted so overwhelmingly positive by its own panel of experts, where no viable alternatives exist. Dr. Noah Prostate is very saddened by the death of Dan Fogelberg at 56 years young of late stage prostate cancer and he can’t help but wonder if Dan was put on Provenge 7 months ago would we still have this great singer with us today. Some men who took Provenge are still alive six years later. Dr. Noah Prostate says he was just trying to help draw a crowd to the important rally in Washington, D.C. He is still trying to help us draw a crowd to this important issue.

So far our last 3 blogs were buried by “people” who are trying to silence us about Provenge, a nontoxic immunotherapy that strenghtens one’s immune system to help men fight off the cancerous cells, voted 17 to 0 safe and 13 to 4 efficacious by an FDA panel of experts.

These gravediggers don’t want us to reach the 30,000 American men each year dying of late stage prostate cancer or the 1 in 6 men who will get prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Make no mistake about it. We are not going away. We are trying to make sure immunotherapy is a choice for late stage prostate cancer patients. Dendreon is also working on nontoxic biologics for breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer etc.

CAN YOU SPOT AND IDENTIFY DR. NOAH PROSTATE? Click here then scroll down to view the video. *

Continue Reading Who is that STUPID CLOWN at the PROVENGE NOW! Rally in Washington DC (Video) »

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While Michael Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation are whooping it up at the ballgame, some men are sneaking off to have their testicles removed in hopes that it will stop their PSA from rising, and their lives from ending prematurely from late stage prostate cancer. 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Over 30,000 American men will die from prostate cancer this year. Only 1 very toxic drug has been approved for late stage pc in over 42 years.

Along came Dendreon’s Provenge, an Immunotherapy voted overwhelmingly safe and effective by the FDA’s panel of experts convened to review Provenge. Was there foul play afoot when the FDA decided to delay approval. Perhaps if our men put some extra pine tar on their bats, we could get some coverage of this story. You would think that the deaths of 15,000 men since the delay would be enough.

Note the Picture on the bottom — David Solit, Tommy Lasorda, Dr. Howard Soule, Dr. Howard Scher and Mike Milken join together in support of the PCF’s Home Run Challenge at the New York Mets vs. Anaheim Angels game on June 10th, 2005 (click link)

Why hasn’t Michael Milken and his Prostate Cancer Foundation stepped up to the plate and publicly voiced his disappointment and disapproval of the decision by the FDA to delay Provenge? Is Milken financially conflicted? The whole thing is permeating a stench in the world of financially conflicted advocacy groups. Continue Reading Michael Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Foul Balls »

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