Ok, let’s get real. I don’t expect to get paid $5000 a month to participate in a clinical trial and I deleted that rash comment from my last post. Fantasy, folks, that’s all. However, any sort of financial assistance in the form of compensation would be welcomed. When I met with the head of the cancer center, I also suggested that greater supportive services would go a long way. Free parking and a comped lunch, but also someone to help me navigate the financial morass while I’m on a drug with known cognitive side effects. Visits to a nutritionist, as just like everyone else on my therapy, my cholesterol is through the roof. How about some free massages—to make my life better/more relaxed? And I mean gratis—not billable to insurance.
In other words, there are ways to make the whole clinical trial experience more welcoming and sustainable. These are relatively new concepts as not so very long ago, most clinical trial participants were a one and done—in the most literal sense.
That was the expectation when I enrolled in my first trial ten years ago. That, best case scenario, my life would be extended for a few months. I am incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to go on to subsequent treatments and trials, extending my life far beyond what I ever thought possible. I am sensitive to the fact that my grousing about money is potentially unseemly for those who would give anything to be in my position–alive.
Gratitude is far more palatable and it makes my disease/continuing survival easier for all to digest. However, the problems I face are faced by others as well and as an advocate/activist, I feel it is vitally important to discuss them—in a public forum.
Being alive is a good problem to have. But having to worry all the time about the expense associated with your medical care is not. I now have way more anxiety about my money than my cancer. How crazy is that?
And the thing is, I am not poor. However, with health costs exceeding a third of my income, it’s not doable.
What if (and I don’t feel this is unreasonable) trial sponsors covered all medical costs for participants, just as so many people already assume is true? If that was taken off my plate than I could pay my other bills. My financial situation would still be tight but it would be tenable. And that is all I’m asking for; (I’m talking to the medical establishment now) don’t make this already tough situation–living with a terminal illness–more difficult than it needs to be. Show some appreciation for the very real contribution I and other clinical trial participants make. Without us and our mutations (that’s right, we actually represent a rare commodity, not just an opportunity) these drugs would never make it to market. That would be a real loss, both in terms of lives and dollars.
So let’s keep this conversation going. My experience might be fairly unusual in terms of years spent in trial, personal finances and marital status, but it’s not unique. Clinical trials are the lynch pin when it comes to cancer therapeutics. Things have been done a certain way in large part because few have questioned the status quo. We, as consumers, have greater value than we sometimes realize and it is time we demand a better experience. As a society, let’s stop asking clinical trial participants for more blood, more sweat, more tears and instead find a way to support them as they lead the way. It’s the right thing to do from both a humanitarian and a business perspective—in a word, profitable.
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 