Not everyone agrees that high-dose chemotherapy is the answer for women with advanced breast cancer that has not spread to other organs. Results of the clinical trials to date are inconclusive, and results of a major U.S. study will not be available until late 2001. Since the mid-1990s, a handful of lawyers has had considerable success in forcing reluctant insurers to cover the procedure, which has offered the only hope of survival for many women whose cancers won't respond to standard therapies. Given the degree of debate the procedure continues to generate in the medical community, it appears the insurance issues will not resolve themselves anytime soon. The scope of the problem is mind-boggling.
Breast cancer is one of the leading killers of women in the United States.
In the year 2000 alone, an estimated 182,800 women will be diagnosed with the disease, and 40,800 will die from it. Because hospitals typically won't begin the procedure until they have proof of insurance, many women have died while waiting for a decision. If the treatment were being used for prostate or testicular cancer, I think the response would have been different. It was women, and it was a lot of money. Whitson got involved in the cause in 1989 when a friend at the state court of appeals was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and had her claim for treatment rejected by her insurance company.