Local senator fights for cancer research

By: Holly Kramer, Staff writer

After her personal experience with breast cancer, state Sen. Barbara Allen, Overland Park, aims to bring the best cancer care to Kansans.

Senate bill 629, sponsored by Allen, would require health insurers to cover cancer clinical trials as they would cover routine medical care.

Allen said after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2005, she participated in a clinical trial in Boston that saved her life.

“I’m a living example of a person who believes in clinical trials,” Allen said. “I went to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for a clinical trial after I was diagnosed and I received a drug that was not typically given for breast cancer.”

The legislation would apply to state-regulated health insurance, not health plans that are self-funded or self-insured, in which employers take on the risk of insuring workers and pay for their health care directly.

Allen praised clinical trials as cutting-edge medical treatments.

“When you’re in a clinical trial, there’s a high degree of monitoring and adherence to protocol,” Allen said. “It’s the best possible care known to mankind at that point in time. It’s not a guinea pig situation.”

Dr. Karen Kelly, who oversees the clinical trials at University of Kansas Medical Center, said about 78 people are enrolled in clinical trials at

KU Cancer Center, 2330 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Westwood.

“I believe this bill would really help us break down some barriers,” Kelly said. “One of the fears that patients have at first is who’s going to pay for the clinical trial.”

Kelly said the company that sponsors the clinical trial pays for the experimental portion of the trial and patients are usually responsible for related costs. Allen said Blue Cross Blue Shield already covers cancer clinical trials.

Patients at KU Med and nationwide deserve the coverage, Kelly said.

“This is a problem nationwide,” Kelly said. “We have a significant number of people whose insurance doesn’t cover the trials.

“There is so much excitement about new therapy and lots of new drugs that need to be explored.”

Creating better drugs to treat cancer is the goal, Kelly said.

“Most of the time, we don’t cure the majority of our patients with the current drugs that are out there and there is certainly an impetus to create better drugs,” Kelly said. “There is an enormous amount of biology about cancer and hundreds of very exciting components. We know that everybody’s tumor is not the same. We are working to customize treatment therapies and find individualized treatments.”

Bringing first-class cancer care to Kansas is the bill’s ultimate goal, Allen said.

“It’s certainly inspired me and motivated me to do everything in my power for women in Kansas,” Allen said. “I have a special spot in my heart for women with breast cancer. I’ve wanted to bring the level of treatment I received in Boston back here. I hope we see the day soon.”

Doctors diagnosed Donna Chambers, 59, with colon and pancreatic cancer in February 2008. Chambers said her life depends on a clinical trial.

“When I found out that I had cancer, I was very, very depressed and cried a lot,” Chambers said. “I went to the KU Cancer Center and they took me on as a patient for trial chemotherapy. The cancer center is just wonderful.”

The cancer has spread to her lungs and liver but Chambers said she has put her faith in the chemotherapy she is receiving from KU Med.

She has chemo one hour one week, and for six hours the following week. Chambers said the six-hour session is exhausting but she is grateful to be part of the experimental treatment.

“When I first started at KU Med, they said ‘We’re going to help you,’” Chambers said. “That gave me optimism. The first doctor I went to before KU told me I had a month or two to live. I believe in miracles. Everyone has been so positive, the doctors and nurses. I believe I’m going to be cured.”

Chambers said her chemo will last at least eight weeks then the doctors will decide where to go from there.

“God gives me strength,” Chambers said. “Also, my friends and family, I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Allen’s bill passed the Senate 40-0. 

The Legislature reconvenes for the wrap-up session April 30.

“We’ve worked really diligently to get a hearing in the House Insurance Committee even though it’s late in the game,” Allen said. “There are a lot of issues on the table right now. We might try to get the bill to be part of the health reform package. I’m not sure how this will fall into place at this time.”