The campaign around Nathalie Traller drew coverage from national and local news organisations in 2014. This page lists the main stories mentioned on the original site and what each reported. It summarises, but does not reproduce, the articles, and the originals should be consulted for full detail.
National coverage
- CNBC ran several segments, with titles referring to unapproved drugs as the only hope, the treatment of a rare cancer, and the compassionate-use system as seen through one family’s experience.
- CNN published a piece by its senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, in early April 2014, about patients who are denied access to experimental drugs.
- UPI reported on a drug maker widening access to a cancer treatment and mentioned the case in that context.
Regional and local coverage
- The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (8 April 2014, by Michael Tsai) described a family with Hawaii roots seeking support from the islands. The article reported that, according to her father, the age limit on trials was a legal and administrative matter and not a medical one, and that early compassionate-use requests had not yet been successful.
- The Oregonian carried a story about a second front in the battle, concerning access to drugs.
- KATU, KOIN 6 and Fox 12 in the Portland area aired local reports, including one on a 24-hour walk.
- KHON in Hawaii covered the teenager’s use of social media to raise attention.
- Oregon Live reported a school fundraiser at a Portland-area high school that raised around 11,000 dollars for cancer research.
- A radio host interviewed her father about compassionate use.
Recurring themes
Taken together, the stories focus on three issues: the way age limits exclude teenagers from trials, the difficulty of obtaining unapproved drugs outside a study, and the power of social media in drawing attention to a rare disease.
Messages of support
The archived page also embedded video messages of encouragement, including a song written by a schoolchild and a performance by a school chorus. We have not reproduced them.
Go back to the overview.