Can the abortion pill treat advanced lung cancer?

Jerome Check firmly believes that mifepristone, better known as the abortion pill, can extend and improve the lives of terminally ill lung cancer patients who have run out of treatment options.
He has enough circumstantial evidence of this that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave him permission to formally test the drug in 40 advanced-stage patients. His clinical trial is the first step toward getting mifepristone approved as a palliative therapy.
But Check has a problem.
The 72-year old Melrose Park infertility specialist can’t get oncologists to send him patients.  After 2½ years, he has enrolled only two of the 40 he needs. Both are doing very well on their daily mifepristone pill.
Check’s problem doesn’t stem from skepticism about the potential benefits of the controversial drug, or his scientific credibility. The root of his trouble seems to be that he’s not an oncologist, and he has no “sponsor” – no deep-pocketed university, company, or institution to manage and finance his clinical trial.
He knew this would be an issue, but decided to go ahead because lung cancer is the nation’s leading cancer killer, ending 154,000 lives a year. And he isn’t getting any younger.

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