Nelene Fox

Who was Nelene Fox?

Nelene Hiepler Fox was a California woman diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. She requested her HMO to pay for High-Dose Chemotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant to treat her cancer. Her health maintenance organization, Health Net, declined her request, stating this therapy was an unproven, experimental therapy. She ultimately received her BMT after raising $212,000, but died eight months later, aged 40.

Her estate sued and received $5 million due to the denial. Subsequent research proved that HDC/BMT was a harmful treatment for breast cancer patients, and it is no longer used.