Dr. Angelus Alvarez Secord
Gynecologic Oncologist, Duke University Medical Center and Duke Cancer Institute.
My name is Angelus Alvarez Secord. I’m a gynecologic oncologist at the Duke University Medical Center and Duke Cancer Institute.
In 2024 we faced unprecedented chemotherapy shortages for patients with gynecologic cancers, and we were desperate to see what we could do to help our patients. In an effort to try to understand what resources were out there I googled “Congressional action and chemotherapy shortages.” It took me to the Congressional briefing where Laura Bray gave her testimony regarding chemotherapy shortages and the detrimental negative impact on patients and their families when these types of situations arise.
Her testimony was so powerful it literally brought me to tears. Watching her speak about her family’s struggles with this–her daughter’s struggle with having a cancer and being told “we don’t have chemotherapy to treat you today;” for this young child to be facing this life and death obstacle, and then for all these patients in our country to be facing this situation which was so unnecessary–struck such a strong chord in me. I couldn’t wait to meet her. She’s truly an incredible individual, a fierce champion for patients, and a changemaker who took this horrible, negative experience and made something so positive out of it. Angels for Change today is helping so many people get access to chemotherapy.
I was the President of the Society of Gynologic Oncology at that time, and I really felt that we needed to do something to ensure that this type of unprecedented shortage would not continue to happen. We have shortages that have been ongoing in this country for two decades and they’re not necessarily getting any better. There are still so many drugs on the chemotherapy shortage list and to make a change in that we need to have policy changes.
So I reached out to the Duke Margolis Policy Center and contacted the individuals there who are leading the End Drug Shortages Alliance. I connected to Stephen Colville and I told him about this amazing Congressional briefing and Laura Bray and he said, “Oh, I know who that is." And so he connected us. I got to meet Laura, and we spoke on the phone. I explained the situation to her about our gynecologic cancer patients and what they were facing, and she said that she could help.
Laura Bray & Dr. Secord at the Society of Gynocologic Oncology Awards
Basically, when I had a patient reaching out to me about the fact that they couldn't get their chemotherapy treatment I would connect them with Angels for Change. Laura utilized her career background to do something called “microsourcing.” She would work with manufacturers and distributors and sometimes other hospitals to microsource chemotherapy drugs to help one patient or hospital at a time. Stewarding supply so that everyone had enough. So if one site had a drug available that was not urgently needed at that time, she could make arrangements for that to be provided at another center that didn’t have any drug availability. And by this way she helped so many people get access to life saving medications.
The work that Laura is doing is life-saving work.
She received the Society of Gynocologic Oncology Award as well as the Institute of Surgical Excellence Award in recognition of all she has done and continues to do for our patients.
Dr. Secord and Laura Bray, recipient of the Institute of Surgical Excellence Award
We do know that policy changes can help people and hopefully will prevent shortages from happening in the future. However, not enough has been done at the Congressional level to ensure that drug shortages are eliminated and therefore we need organizations like Angels for Change. We need the energy that Laura brings and the dedication she has put forth to ensure that these drugs are accessible to patients. Laura says this better than anyone else: no patient should ever be told that the drugs that could save your life are not available to you. And imagine a cancer patient being told that? It just blows my mind when you know that a drug to treat you and cure your disease is available but you don’t have access to it because there are not enough measures in place to ensure that those drugs are manufactured and delivered to the people that need them.
I saw firsthand how the work that Laura’s doing through Angels for Change helped our patients fight gynecologic cancer, please support Angels for Change so they can continue to do their lifesaving work.
