Telling My Sister About A Cancer Study

My sister has Chronic Leukemia. She's not responding well to treatment. She's had 2 rounds of chemo and she was expected to go into remission the first time for 5 years and it lasted 18 months. Then she had her second round. And now about a year later she's in for round 3. Meanwhile I read this article in the NYT about a Dr. June who discovered something that miraculously and overnight cured 2 people and resulted in tremendous improvement for a third. It was not a study. It was just a few random people, but they all did good. I wrote to them and they said they're going to do a study and they will be accepting some patients to take part. They told me what the qualifications are and my sister has them all. They said she should contact them if she wants to apply. She just finished her third round last week. I have not communicated with her since. But I'm sure she's exhausted and depressed. I want to have her read the article I read and hear about the study and consider applying to get in. I'm not sure how to bring it up. Should I just have her read the article first and say nothing else and just ask her what she thinks? Part of me hates to even bring it up because what if she wants to get in and they don't accept her? I'll feel like all I did was make things worse. What do you think I should do?

Maybe I should ask it this way - if you have cancer or ever did in the past, would you rather know about a possible cure you might not have access to or would you rather not know?

reply to post by Hillarie

Sources (credible) might help
www.businessweek.com...
www.midlandsconnect.com...
www.nytimes.com...
I can't tell you what to do but maybe she can make up her own mind. Good luck!

ETA The Doctor in question seems quite legit and has a lot of experience with cancer patients. From your description of how things are going, and without wanting to be too negative, it might be said that she might not have much to lose. I have no idea how effective conventional treatment is against leukemia but I imagine the blood is one of the hardest things to "treat" with chemo and radio therapies.

Whats your sisters age?

sending good vibes for hopes she gets better.

I would like to know there was a cure, and prey prey prey that it would find its way upon me.

reply to post by Hillarie


When my sister-in-law had cancer, I would forward anything I found to her related to possible experimental cures. I think when your back is against the wall and nothing seems to work, why not try something different.

My sister-in-law eventually died of ovarian cancer. I still read things now and than about possible cancer cures. Now that she's gone, I wish she wouldn't of wasted all the time she spent on chemotherapy. Her own doctor even told her and her husband that the stronger chemotherapy could kill her. Unfortunately, she went down hill after getting the stronger doses of chemotherapy.

She did travel for treatments to Chicago to Cancer Centers of America. She really liked that hospital and we all felt they did the best for her.

I thank everyone who replied. My sister is 54. I agree with letting her make up her own mind and I agree that conventional treatments suck. My only reservation is that if she gets her hopes up and applies to get into the study and is rejected. I don't want to be responsible for putting her through that.