Open Mics - Chemotherapy in Pill Form - The Risks and Rewards

Lindsey Mills, melanoma survivor
In 2014, doctors identified a mole on her back as melanoma. As part of her follow-up, scans detected three tumors in her lungs in 2017.
Her doctor suggested she enroll in a clinical trial that provided oral chemotherapy vs. the traditional chemotherapy.
Her side effects are greatly reduced and she is learning to live with how the oral medications affect her.
There's so much hope there's so many advancements in technology. If you do get that scary news of cancer, your life's not over -- you can continue to have a life, you can continue to have a family, work, go after your dreams, all those things.
Kyle Mead, melanoma survivor
He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2001 and in 2018 was diagnosed with a tumor on his heart when he got a second opinion at The University of Kansas Health System.
He had complications from the drip chemotherapy and was able to join the clinical trial for oral chemotherapy.
While he still has some side effects, they appear much less intrusive than the side effects from traditional treatment.
If anything feels abnormal with you, he recommends getting it checked early.
Marshall Johnson, PharmD, clinical coordinator, oral chemotherapy & specialty pharmacy, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
Oral chemotherapy medications have been around since the 1960s, but we are seeing a larger increase in the oral medications now.
The benefit of oral agents is that we give the patient the power to manage their own treatment, which can be very encouraging and uplifting for some patients.
It can provide more freedom in their daily schedule.
There are several considerations taken into account before putting patients on oral chemotherapy such as living arrangements, side effects, insurance, and other factors.
Everybody is collaborating to make sure patients are receiving the best possible care and the best possible treatment.
Melynn Jones, RN, nurse coordinator, The University of Kansas Health System
With our oral anti-cancer drugs, we have our wonderful clinical pharmacist team at the Cancer Center and all of our prescriptions go to them first.
They do a series of checks through the patient's chart go over their history to make sure that this is the correct medication for the correct patient.
Correct dosing everything. So we can guarantee that our patients are getting the right therapy prescribed to them.
To the people that are on these medications, keep on hoping because there are new advancements in cancer research every single day. And we are not going to stop fighting to get our patients the best treatment and the best care that we can.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director, infection prevention & control, The University of Kansas Health System
There is some good information data to support the fact that vaccination does help reduce your risk of long COVID.
We know that vaccination has reduced the risk of long COVID anywhere from 15 to 35 percent.
A new study in the British Medical Journal looked at people who were not vaccinated (because it was before vaccination was available). What they found is that 18 percent of those people at two years still had some symptoms of long COVID and 17 percent of those people after two years of infection really never regained their baseline health status prior to that infection.
This is just more information continuing to support the fact that we know long COVID can affect people's daily lives.