Yes, it's another new cure, another pharmaceutical drug that is going to be a "game-changer" according the BBC News, and the rest of the mainstream news media (eg the Telegraph, the Mail Online, the Sun, et al. All using exactly the same information (a pharmaceutical press release), with almost exactly the same wording.
This is, of course, a routine part of news coverage in the mainstream media, which cannot exist without the advertising revenues coming from the pharmaceutical industry. It's a unique, and deeply harmful partnership. The mainstream media does not sell cars, or washing machines, or anything else without payment. The drug industry this coverage entirely free.
This time the new treatment is for Ovarian Cancer, and the drug is called Olabparid
"Drugs advisory body NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said using olaparib at an earlier stage in treatment would bring the greatest benefit "and may have the potential to cure the disease. In the trial, nearly 60% of patients receiving the drug did not see the disease get any worse after three years, compared with just 27% of patients taking a dummy drug.
But NICE said it was not yet clear if patients using it were living any longer, because those taking part in the trial had not been followed up for long enough."
Olaparib is made by AstraZeneca. It is "a pioneering type of cancer drug called a PARP inhibitor, which works by targeting an inherited genetic fault, causing cancer cells to die". In the BBC article, and the mainstream press, they did not bother to mention side effects - just that Olaparib was a wonder cure, a game-changer, with the potential "to cure the disease".
So let's see what happens over the next few years. Will olaparib prove as good as its manufacturer claims? Or wil it become yet another drug that is too dangerous to prescribe, withdrawn by the manufacture, or banned by the drug regulator. Only time will tell.
However, the prospect for the latter scenario appears to be excellent! Olaparid is NOT a new drug, it is an old drug that will now be used at an earlier stage of the cancer. So its side effects are already published in the conventional medical literature. The mainstream media could have had a look - but it decided not to do so.
The Drugs.com website reports that common side effects of olaparib include upper respiratory tract infection, anaemia, decreased hemoglobin, increased mcv, increased serum creatinine, nasopharyngitis, nausea, pharyngitis, vomiting, cough, and dyspnea.
Yet this is just the tip of a much larger iceberg. Doctors are told, for example, that Olaparid can cause cancer (acute myeloid leukemia), the it affects the blood in a variety of ways, causes phargitis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonitis, lots of gastrointestinal problems, fatigue, peripheral oedema, arthragia, myalgia, back pain, hypertension, venous thrombosis, dermatitis, eczema, pruritus, peripheral neurophy, and perhaps not surprisingly, anxiety, depression and insomnia.
All these serious side effects from an allegedly 'break-through' drug.
Predictably, none of these serious 'side effects' were mentioned by the BBC, or any of the other articles on the same subject. It would seem that we are supposed to rejoice the (allegedly) good news, whilst ignoring (or not be told about) the bad news.
So along with the many other 'wonder' drugs that I have featured on this blog through recent years, let's wait to see what the situation is regarding Olaparib in a few years time.
This is, of course, a routine part of news coverage in the mainstream media, which cannot exist without the advertising revenues coming from the pharmaceutical industry. It's a unique, and deeply harmful partnership. The mainstream media does not sell cars, or washing machines, or anything else without payment. The drug industry this coverage entirely free.
This time the new treatment is for Ovarian Cancer, and the drug is called Olabparid
"Drugs advisory body NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said using olaparib at an earlier stage in treatment would bring the greatest benefit "and may have the potential to cure the disease. In the trial, nearly 60% of patients receiving the drug did not see the disease get any worse after three years, compared with just 27% of patients taking a dummy drug.
But NICE said it was not yet clear if patients using it were living any longer, because those taking part in the trial had not been followed up for long enough."
Olaparib is made by AstraZeneca. It is "a pioneering type of cancer drug called a PARP inhibitor, which works by targeting an inherited genetic fault, causing cancer cells to die". In the BBC article, and the mainstream press, they did not bother to mention side effects - just that Olaparib was a wonder cure, a game-changer, with the potential "to cure the disease".
So let's see what happens over the next few years. Will olaparib prove as good as its manufacturer claims? Or wil it become yet another drug that is too dangerous to prescribe, withdrawn by the manufacture, or banned by the drug regulator. Only time will tell.
However, the prospect for the latter scenario appears to be excellent! Olaparid is NOT a new drug, it is an old drug that will now be used at an earlier stage of the cancer. So its side effects are already published in the conventional medical literature. The mainstream media could have had a look - but it decided not to do so.
The Drugs.com website reports that common side effects of olaparib include upper respiratory tract infection, anaemia, decreased hemoglobin, increased mcv, increased serum creatinine, nasopharyngitis, nausea, pharyngitis, vomiting, cough, and dyspnea.
All these serious side effects from an allegedly 'break-through' drug.
Predictably, none of these serious 'side effects' were mentioned by the BBC, or any of the other articles on the same subject. It would seem that we are supposed to rejoice the (allegedly) good news, whilst ignoring (or not be told about) the bad news.
So along with the many other 'wonder' drugs that I have featured on this blog through recent years, let's wait to see what the situation is regarding Olaparib in a few years time.
