Overcoming Cancer:
Health Story

Aired on Lifetime Television
Sunday, October 14 and December 2, 2007
Show 422

Dr. Mel Goldstein, a TV meteorologist in Connecticut, has been living with multiple myeloma—an aggressive bone marrow cancer—for more than 11 years. "When I was first diagnosed, the average length of survival was only two and a half years," says Dr. Mel. But now, thanks to clinical research studies and a drug called Revlamed, he is the longest living person with myeloma, and helped Revlamed become a Food and Drug Administration approved treatment. "If it weren't for clinical trials, I wouldn't be here talking with you," says Dr. Mel. Six years ago, he enrolled in a drug trial at Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston with the support and guidance of his physician Dr. Dennis Cooper. "The major promise of a clinical trial is that it offers the opportunity to completely change how we approach patients," says Dr. Cooper. And, there are thousands of clinical drug trials going on for all kinds of medical conditions including cancer. "This disease has been very challenging. For me though, the last 11 years have been the most fulfilling years of my entire life," says Dr. Mel.