Cures for the Wealthy?

Earlier this month, the news was full of a new treatment was approved by the FDA which had been developed for late-stage prostate cancer. In this treatment, white blood cells were removed from the patient's body and treated with protein fragments from the cancer cells. This stimulated the immune response of the body.

This seems to me, at least on the surface, to be a great break through as I feel that the key to battling cancer is to look at the individual's immune response. After all, these are our individual cells which have run amok. Granted, I'm not a scientist, nor to I play one on T.V., but it just seems logical.

What doesn't seem logical though is that one of the reports I heard about this said that it was extremely expensive as it isn't mass-produced and that it takes a fairly long time in order to do it. Does this mean that if this IS the way to treat cancer that only the wealthy will be able to take advantage of it? Even now, it is a bit maddening to know that there are lots of adjuvant therapies which I could do, if I was willing or able to shell out the extra money to do it. In this case, I mean therapies which are not necessarily proven to stem the tide, but seem to have positive effects, such as qi gong, additional health suppliements, and other non-traditional therapies.

The other maddening thing is that this treatment only resulted in an additional four months of longevity in the study group. If I were part of this group, I would sure as heck want more than just an additional four months....In other words..once again, we are just not getting the full picture.