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In the video above Robyn O'Brien shares her personal story and how it inspired her to become a Real Food evangelist. Her journey started when one of her children had a dangerous allergic reaction to a "typical" breakfast, and unfolded into discovering one reason why the United States may have the highest cancer rate in the world.
Oncologists have long been using crude weapons to fight cancer -- cut out tumors or use chemotherapy that kills good cells as well as bad ones. Drug companies say that new cancer drugs will change this -- for a price. Last year Gleevec grossed $4.3 billion, Herceptin made $6 billion and Avastin $7.4 billion.
Cancer drugs are often horribly expensive. Last year biotech drugs accounted for 70 percent of the increase in pharmaceutical costs in America. In general, cancer plays a huge role in raising costs. America's National Institutes of Health predicts that spending on all cancer treatment will rise to $158 billion in 2020 -- or, if drugs become pricier, as seems likely, as high as $207 billion.
The Economist reports:
"Not all these new drugs work. In December the FDA said that Avastin's side effects outweighed its meager impact on breast cancer. (Genentech will argue otherwise in a hearing in June.) More generally, some people reckon that new cancer drugs offer small benefits at an exorbitant price. Provenge costs $93,000 for a course of treatment and extends life by an average of four months. Yervoy costs $120,000 for three-and-a-half months."
None of this is likely to change so long as the conventional medical establishment and organizations like the American Cancer Society, which appears to be far more interested in money than it is in finding a cure, continue to have their way.