“Inconvenience”?

A couple of weeks ago I submitted applications for consideration in a number of clinical trials being conducted across the country of new chemo agents that are specifically targeted to liposarcoma. I received the following email from one of them today:

“Thank you for . . . expressing interest in a clinical trial. You asked to be contacted by the coordinator at the research study site in [location redacted]. The study site has a defined preference for how far away they are willing to accept patients and, unfortunately, you appear to be farther than that distance. Because of this distance restriction, you will not be considered eligible for this particular location. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

“Inconvenience”??? That’s a poor choice of words. Has it not occurred to them that patients are willing to move mountains if an effective therapy can be found beneath them? To deny patients access to potentially life-saving new treatments because of temporary relocation inconveniences is to lose sight of the purpose of the healing profession. And what part of cancer do they believe is not inconvenient? I traveled coast-to-coast for treatment of my previous two occurrences.

And here I’ve been thinking that the “locals only” mentality only applied to good surf spots.