NET root of my mood
I have taken the last few days to try to get a handle on the latest grief tsunami. I am increasingly disturbed by my inability to move forward emotionally. The truth is that with each passing day I seem to have more and more difficulty with my emotional state.
Part of the problem is what I am doing here. Every post reminds me That Jane is no longer here. Every piece of research underlines how little we could do to help her then–and how little we could do to help her even today. Every failure to reach a specific goal in the fight against NET feels like I have failed her. Intellectually, I know that is not the case. Logically, I know that is not the case. But my emotions refuse to listen to my logic or my intellect. They consistently reject the evidence that says clearly that what we are doing–even when what we are doing falls short–is making a real difference in our progress against the disease.
NET progress is real
And that progress has been significant. We are successfully growing cell lines in vitro, we are in the process of proving an animal model, we have new drugs and therapies moving toward approval. In the last month we have potentially reached 60,000 people with information about NET. This fall we will begin the DNA analysis that will finally begin to show us the causes of NET and give us a clearer idea of how to target the mutations that cause the cancer. A cure may still be decades away but the evolving research base has begun to build the base that will take us there.
Political realities
That is all good news–but it is news that underlines the difficulties we still face. The political realities in Washington make it unlikely we will see much in the way of federal money in the near future. Mobile/Exxon will continue to receive tax cuts and federal reimbursements totalling billions of dollars, but NET cancer patients will continue to die because a 1968 cost-benefit analysis
failed to see a significant enough gain for the money that would need to be spent.
Drug trials cost money. Basic research of the kind we need to do to crack NET costs money. But corporate profits matter more than human lives or human suffering. Sustaining a military with a budget larger than the next 58 countries combined matters more than funding research into cancer in general and NET in particular.
Not just rights, but responsibilities
I believe in America. I believe in democracy. I believe in the Constitution. I believe we are a compassionate nation. I believe that the people of this country know that our country is about shared responsibility every bit as much as it is about individual freedom. Without shared responsibility there is no such thing as freedom.
Americans care about each other. They want to see cures for disease just as much as they want to see victory in war.
NET success requires change
But for the last 40 years our government has been more concerned with feeding corporate greed and warfare than in the welfare of its citizens. That needs to change.
Otherwise, our public health issues will continue to grow. Research into cancer in general will continue to slow–and research into NET will continue to depend on the kindness of strangers.
