Hmmm…anon. Well, Dr. Richard Joseph does acknowledge he gets lots of "great questions", his answers might be viewed as a bit lacking in empathy! His attitude seems to be: "Well, you have a 20% chance of progressing, so why worry about adjuvant treatment?" I wonder how a doc who casually presents that attitude would feel if THEY had a 20% chance of progresssing. I mean…watch and wait is completely acceptable if that's what the patient wants…the attitude is what seems….well…"interesting"!!! There is no answer (It's just too soon to tell!!!) provided to a question about what new combo's in melanoma care are most promising….a really important consideration for those who have progressed on current FDA approved therapies!! Yet, there's the positive presentation of IMO-2125…a whole 9 patients!!!!….with notoriously little information available to tell ANYTHING about it!! I wrote about that particular trial and "data" here:
http://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2017/11/imo-2125-tlr-agnoist-combined-with.html
That trial is in phase III stages now and has been fast-tracked. I hope for all melanoma patients that that is due to great results not just the money and power behind it (MDAnderson and Idera)!!! Lord knows we need all the great new treatments we can get!
So….lots to think about. But basically, while I'm certain Dr. Joseph considers his interview well meaning, in some ways it highlights the point of a post I happened to put up today:
https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2018/02/patients-vs-docsagain.html
As patients, we rely on doctors to diagnose our disease, inform us of our options to treat it, provide the treatment WE select, help us survive our treatment, and pass from this world as painlessly as possible if we must. When doctors are cavalier about our status, avoid rather than answer our questions directly, or fail to listen to us….we can tell!!!
Still, all in all, the more perspectives we can attain in melanoma, the better. Thanks for sharing. Celeste
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