It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything about Abraham Cherrix, the teen who rejected conventional chemotherapy for Hodgkins’ lymphoma in favor of the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy. Ultimately, there was a legal battle resulting in a compromise that allowed Cherrix to pursue “alternative” therapy at a clinic in Mississippi run by a radiation oncologist who, in addition to providing radiation, also provides a variety of “alternative” therapies. When last we left Abraham Cherrix, after multiple recurrences on low dose radiation plus an unproven “immunotherapy,” he had no evaluable disease (NED). Unfortunately, he is very unlikely to have been cured, for reasons discussed by both me and The Cheerful Oncologist.
At year’s end, though, according to a news report in The Virginian-Pilot, he remains in remission and is apparently doing well. Despite my copious blogging on the case, I was hoping he’d beat the odds. After all, if I didn’t care whether he lived or died, I wouldn’t have been so dismayed at his choice of outright quackery first and then dubious immunotherapy second. I hate seeing cancer cut down youth in its prime, particularly when the death is potentially avoidable. Fortunately, Abraham did choose radiation, which is excellent palliation, although highly unlikely to be a cure. I was also far more upset how his case was used to pass “Abraham’s Law,” which was in essence a license for parents to use whatever quackery they want on children with life-threatening diseases. In the State of Virginia, at least, Abraham’s battle has the potential to have harmed many other children.
As for Abraham’s ultimate outlook, he’s still not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination. Chances are very high that his lymphoma will recur in 2008. But you never know. He still might beat the odds.
