Dying Patients Deserve the Right to Try New Cancer Treatments

A 19-year-old woman from South Carolina travels to London for a cancer therapy she says helped clear a brain tumor that other surgeons refused to treat. Diagnosed with glioblastoma at 16, the tumor returned aggressively after her first surgery, and doctors stopped operating. At UCLA, a surgeon performed the invasive operation, and she began a personalized immunotherapy made from her own tumor tissue and immune cells. The family has health insurance, but pays out of pocket for flights and doses. The piece argues that in the UK, licensed physicians can prescribe promising treatments not approved in the U.S. and calls for U.S. “right to try” expansion, noting Trump signed such laws while the FDA still slows access.