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*** - Dennis Hopper is getting some special "New Treatment."

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Posted 11/9/2009 5:53 PM (GMT 0)
Explain to me how Dennis Hopper can walk into University of Southern California and get some special new treatment that "has great promise" and nobody else knows anything about it?  Is there any information about what it is?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ifI7xhzmUWjnZuu1k184b5lz_G6w

I didn't know that if you were a celebrity you could avoid the FDA process for clinical trials and just start one on yourself.   

Does anyone know what this "great new treatment is."   The press should know better then to print quotes like this.  But of course it's the press.  Bull-Winkle was right?  "If it's in the paper it must be true."

 

Posted 11/9/2009 6:22 PM (GMT 0)

There's a few things I won't volunteer to be the first at - New Medical treatment would be one of those. Hopper's been fighting it for nine years...Hope things work out for him.

Posted 11/9/2009 6:24 PM (GMT 0)
The only clinical trials at USC that would seem to apply are in the link below:

4P-04-3 Velcade, Bortezomib + Docetaxyl chemotherapy
4P-09-2 TAK-700
4P-09-6 Abiraterone
SWOG-S0421 Docetaxyl + Atracentan

http://uscnorriscancer.usc.edu/cltrials/ListProtocols.aspx

Clearly after 9 years with the disease he is facing a tough road. My very best to him and his family.

Hope is a valuable tool at this point.

Tony
Posted 11/9/2009 6:59 PM (GMT 0)
Even if it is a clinical trial.  Isn't there a chance he's getting a placebo instead of the treatment?  I didn't think anyone was guarnteed to get the drug in a trial.....How do you know he has been fighting PCa for 9 years?  All I read was it was just a cancer.  They did not say PCa.

Posted 11/9/2009 7:07 PM (GMT 0)
If you look at each of the ones I listed above you will see if it is a randomized study or not. If it is randomized then it requires the patient to submit to the study requirement for a placebo arm.

Last week it was announced that Hopper was fighting prostate cancer and that he was canceling tour dates because of it. Prostate cancer is the most likely that would take 9 years to become metastatic.

www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/412001_tvgif9.html

Tony
Posted 11/9/2009 7:29 PM (GMT 0)

ChrisR - from the link you posted:

It was revealed last month that the 73-year-old actor had been diagnosed with cancer, although he said on Saturday he had been battling the disease for the past nine years.

Posted 11/9/2009 7:41 PM (GMT 0)
Steve,
I think the keyword is "revealed". Last month it was revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Hopper indicated that actual diagnosis took place 9 years ago.

Tony
Posted 11/10/2009 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
Is it possible that he is actually going to Loma Linda in Southern Cal and Not USC.?  He might be taking Proton Beam Therapy.
Posted 11/10/2009 12:22 AM (GMT 0)
Dennis Hopper most likely has more money than most of us. You can start your own special treatment program with some money. They might even name a machine after you or something.

I wish him all the best.
Posted 11/10/2009 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
I can only use reasonable deduction, and any statements about where Hopper is is purely speculation. But many of us have been dealing with prostate cancer quite some time and are familiar with the available protocols with advanced cases.

Fred,
I don't think that, by his own account, nine years into this he is doing a local therapy at all, and again, by his own account, he stated that he is at USC which has a strong oncology group. I believe that this is not a PBT case by reasonable deduction. That stated, if he has bone mets or lesions in distant organs, it is possible he is using salvage therapy to lessen pain in distant mets. But again, Hopper is the source that states USC.

goodlife,
He may have a lot of money, but the Brady Center at USC cannot create treatments and practice on patients without registering the treatment through the NCI and the FDA. History has it that rich guys die from prostate cancer as well, and that money alone cannot save a patient.

Let's hope for the best for him, regardless of what he is doing and why he is doing it.

Tony
Posted 11/10/2009 1:02 AM (GMT 0)

ChrisR said...
Even if it is a clinical trial. Isn't there a chance he's getting a placebo instead of the treatment? I didn't think anyone was guarnteed to get the drug in a trial.....How do you know he has been fighting PCa for 9 years? All I read was it was just a cancer. They did not say PCa.

There are clinical trials that aren't just drugs. I had one in TFT and there aren't any placebos for a cryosurgical treatment or a saturation 3D biopsy.
Posted 11/10/2009 1:04 AM (GMT 0)
Just supposing.

He'd kept the cancer secret for nine years. If he were going into a prominent hospital for experimental treatment -- that is he was already accepted -- then it seems now would be when he would make his cancer public. After all, it wouldn't be long before somebody from a trashy supermarket rag reported it and snapped an unseemly picture for the cover.

"DENNIS HOPPER CANCER SHOCKER!"

Just supposin'.

OBB
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