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Cytotoxic?

Hi,

I bought travel insurance and included CML..not bad only £17.25 extra.
They asked if I was using medication which I said yes..Glivec and that it is well tolorated.

Then they asked if I was on a Cytotoxic drug and I said: I am on a protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor called Glivec but not sure if it is considered cytotoxic? They said that the standard chemo therapies were classified as cytotoxic but seem to think this was not.

Is Glivec considered to be a chemotherapy? I guess not really in the traditional sense but is it Cytotoxic?

Kind Regards
Bil

As far as I know Glivec is not regarded as chemotherapy, it does not work in a similar way. It is an inhibitor as opposed to a destroyer. Thing is Glivec is the first ever successful tki [tyrosine kinase inhibitor] and some insurance companies have difficulty with this. However having said this all the insurance companies we mention on this site have heard of Glivec.
Enjoy Malta !
Elizabeth

Hi all,
well Chemotherapy is refer to any chemical drug you use for treat cancer. From this definition, yes, Gleevec is chemotherapy.
The most important point of Gleevec, is that it was the first drug specifically desgined for targeting the origin of the CML disease (the expression of an oncogen bcr-abl coming from the abnormal chromosome, which leads to the expression of this tyr-kinase protein). SO we are in front of the first effective therapy "biologically" funded. And that's great!
Regarding cytotoxic, I have to say that on traditional chemotherapy one can distingyish too, between cytotoxic (killers) and cytostatic (inhibition of division) drugs.
Regarding the insurances, I don't understand the problems. You have to think, though that Gleevec was approved on 2001, and CML is not that frequent so It's understandable they have not heard never before. From my point of view, the fact that You are diagnosed of leukemia and you are being treated for the disease, should be enough information for them!

Carmen

I am struggling to get insurance, probably due to holiday planned to the USA :(

rob - http://cmlblog.spaces.live.com

no, glivec is not considered to be a cytotoxic drug.
sandy C ;o)

Hi Rob,

Sorry it it took me so long to get back to your message, I missed it on the last log ins.

I got my insurance through the Post Office. It was really easy to do, I called their 0800 number which is on the site here and I spoke to them, they put me through to pre-existing conditions and went through my history.

They did seem a bit vague when I said my remission was hematological and that my drug was a TKI and not a traditional chemo but they went ahead and did it as a remission and non cytotoxic drug and the extra cost was £17.25 and this was even though I had been admitted to the hospital within the last 2 years (only 4 months ago).

I think that it is all underwritten by Fortis.

But I am going within the EU and I do think this helps...give them a call..Also they were so easy a decision on the spot. I tried a couple of other insurance agencies and they wanted to
talk to my Hemo/Onc and others wanted so much info and had to get back to me...

So this was nice and easy..I would definately use them again!

If I can just recommend that you definately try to get insurance for the USA as the healthcare system there does not budge for you without insurance and if you get taken care of while you are there even in a county hospital they will still expect payment and hospitals will not treat typically if you do not have insurance.

Medical care is very very expensive in the US.

Let me know how you get on, where are you going in the states?