Kennedy Headline Went Too Far

By: Jonathan LaPook, M.D.
Topics: Health Notes

(CBS)

Dr. Jonathan LaPook is the medical correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

The New York Post's well-known history of clever headlines ("Headless Body in Topless Bar") has earned it a daily glance from many New Yorkers looking for the latest news – if not an occasional smile. But yesterday's headline, "TED IS DYING," provided neither. As a physician, I was deeply offended.

Even if the paper's editors turn out to be right, who are they to offer a medical prognosis? Do they know all the details of the case? Are they taking care of the senator? Even if they don't care about the feelings of the senator, his family, his friends, or any of the rest of us, there's no reporting in the article to justify the headline.

Yes, malignant glioma is a tough disease, and Sen. Ted Kennedy is in for the fight of his life. But there are patients with the disease who beat the odds and survive for more than ten years. No doctor has the right to take hope away from a patient. Who knows how Kennedy's cancer will respond to chemotherapy and radiation? We live in a time of new, exciting cancer treatments including targeted therapies that act in novel ways – for example, by depriving a cancer of nourishment by choking off its blood supply. Gene therapy, vaccines that stimulate a patient's own immune system to fight a cancer, and new forms of chemotherapy and radiation are all in active development.

When I tell a patient he or she has cancer, I try to give them an idea of the big picture. A patient has the right to know what they are up against; what is written in the textbooks. But the longer I practice medicine, the more I understand that it is an eternally humbling profession. We simply cannot predict the future – even, and perhaps especially, when we feel we just know what's down the road.

If a patient's illness turns right when I've predicted left, I'm always reminded of what I was taught in medical school over thirty years ago: "maybe your patient's disease didn't read the textbook." Now, I need to add, "or The New York Post."

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by btr2oz May 23, 2008 2:33 AM EDT: Doctor,
I have never been a fan of Senator Kennedy''s nor do we share like political views, however, this headline is disgraceful! I have had a brain tumor and had four surgeries in the 90''s two her in St. Louis and two at UVA in Charlottesville, VA. I am lucky it was not malignant - it blinded me in one eye by pressing on the optic nerve. It could have killed me in a second if a blodd vessel had burst as the tumor had woven around blood vessels, etc. I hope Senator Kennedy is in the best of hands in Boston. I''m sure his spirits are very important in his process of dealing with whatever steps are necessary to save his life. I wish him the patience and clarity of mind to help the doctors fight with him and win this battle with cancer. I hope they found it soon enough. My final surgery was called Gamma Knife and my doctor was Ladislau Steiner who is an amazing man at UVA.
The news media who printed that headline should be ashamed.
-Elaine Willingham
Kirkwood, MO; Reply to this comment


by techbane May 22, 2008 10:50 PM EDT: One method of nano-technology already under research is to use antibodies. These antibodies have been engineered to combine a mechanism that%u2019s lethal to only a cancer cell.

These nano-particles are very specific to only the cancer cells in question. But many of these different labs will be patenting their own innovative mechanisms to achieve that specificity.

There are a lot of mechanisms to kill cancer cells (payloads?) that can be carried along for the ride, so to speak, that wouldn%u2019t do much damage to nearby cells (chemical, radioactive, mechanical/kinetic), %u2026But one significant question is: what mechanism is being employed (and possibly different in each lab%u2019s work) in each nano-particle to provide specificity to target that particle to only cancer cells (and not healthy cells? That is no small challenge to overcome.

There is also another surgical technique (that I hesitate to even mention, %u2026with regard to the beloved Sen. Kennedy), that is rarely used for epilepsy patients. It means a reeducation, almost from square-1 afterwards, when it works (just heartbreaking), but patients walk and talk, %u2026and live. Which doesn%u2019t, statistically, happen usually with glioma tumors.

I%u2019m sure that there are a million, million reasons why it%u2019s stupid of me to even mention it, %u2026but well...?

OWEN JAY KORMAN
Philadelphia, PA 19104; Reply to this comment


by dennisjr6 May 22, 2008 10:11 PM EDT: Kennedy''s Headline went to far....; Reply to this comment


by jaguar0 May 22, 2008 10:00 PM EDT: Were "ALL DYING," some people sooner then other, because they can not get medical care. In so far as any paper that Little RM owed. Cowards, tend to published cowardly headlines.; Reply to this comment


by mja721 May 22, 2008 7:35 PM EDT: What do you expect from the Post? At what point will News Corp stop pouring money into that lost cause? It''s a waste of paper.; Reply to this comment