"That's what my break was really about," she told Billboard Magazine. "I could've had a stroke." Gomez said she underwent the treatment but did not specify whether she took chemo drugs or actual chemotherapy. According to one top lupus doctor, chemo drugs are now being used for the disease, believe it or not.
"Chemo kills cells that are rapidly dividing. What you are hoping is you hit the right dose of chemo to kill the problem and spare the cells you need to live," told Dr. Joan T. Merrill, medical director of the Lupus Foundation of America, to the Daily News.
Merill said the list of illnesses that chemo can be used for are: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis, vasculitis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, and sceleroderma.
But while some see this as hope of treating difficult diseases that do not have a cure, is this just an excuse to stop looking for better treatment options and use one of the most expensive type of drugs on more patients? Is money playing a big role in these decisions? And are they ignoring the true history (and shocking ineffectiveness) of chemotherapy related treatments, putting their patients at risk?
Besides cancer, these are the diseases chemo is used for:
Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) and mycophenolate mofetil (CellCept) chemotherapy drugs work by reducing the activity of the immune system, and are used to treat cancer or a very severe case of lupus. According to Medical Daily, chemo and other treatment options for lupus are aimed at reducing inflammation, suppressing the immune system, and lessening symptoms such as joint pain.
According to Cancer Research UK, cyclophosphamide's side effects include developing cancer and heart damage (fewer than 1 in 100 people, exact number unknown). People with lupus more often die from heart disease. The American College of Rheumatology explained that Cyclophosphamide is used for severe cases of refractory rheumatoid arthritis, as well as myositis, scleroderma, or vasculitis. The drug can cause serious side effects, include birth defects.
Drugs' "off-label use" is legal!
"If a drug has been approved for one use, physicians may elect to use this same drug for other problems if they believe it may be helpful," according to ChemoCare, a chemotherapy informational site funded by The Scott Hamilton Cares Initiative.
Cytoxan was never approved for the treatment of lupus, arthritis, or vasculitis; and CellCept was never approved for lupus. How is this possible?
According to the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, "The FDA does not limit or control how the medications are prescribed by physicians once the medications are available on the market," therefore any commercially approved drug can be used to treat anything as long as the doctor decided to do so. Believe it or not this is a fairly common practice as about 21% of prescription were an off-label use in 2006; in an intensive care unit the number was over 36%.
Chemotherapy Drugs Bring in the Big Bucks
Is there a reason for doctors to prescribe chemotherapy over other treatment options? As you may have guessed, money could be playing a major role.
In the past, doctors such as Dr. Farid Fata were proven guilty of prescribing chemotherapy drugs to patients who did not need them. Why would doctors do that? - Kickbacks. Chemotherapy drugs are the most profitable type of drug on the market, because doctors who prescribe them, receive a direct monetary cut.
NBC News reported back in 2006 that doctors buy chemotherapy drugs wholesale and make profit from selling the drugs. The potential for conflict of interest is evident. The New York Times reported that oncologists are tempted to keep prescribing chemotherapy drugs to patients even when the drugs have little to no chance of working. But as everyone knows, the side effects are potentially devastating.
Are other types of doctors any different? Could this be the incentive behind prescribing chemotherapy drugs for other diseases?
"[Doctors] might have a preference to give you the [drug] that they're going to make the most money from," said Arthur Caplan with the University of Pennsylvania Center of Bioethics to NBC News, and it's just one more reason why educating ourselves and taking control of our own personal health is more important now than ever before.
"Chemo kills cells that are rapidly dividing. What you are hoping is you hit the right dose of chemo to kill the problem and spare the cells you need to live," told Dr. Joan T. Merrill, medical director of the Lupus Foundation of America, to the Daily News.
What a joke.