Oncologists’ lives threatened?

Prostate cancer patients and patient advocates may be sending threats to prominent prostate cancer experts for opposing approval of a new drug:

Two prominent prostate cancer experts have been threatened for opposing approval of a controversial new drug and are being protected by bodyguards as they attend ASCO, The New York Times reports.

The experts, Howard Scher of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Maha Hussain of the University of Michigan, received email and other threats, according to spokeswomen for Sloan-Kettering and for the cancer conference.

It is not known who sent the threats. However, it is clear that the doctors’ public stance against the drug, Provenge, has inflamed the passions of some men with prostate cancer and patient advocates, who say the drug would offer hope to desperate patients with few or no alternatives.

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