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Study says cancer drugs are worth the price
Posted Jun 27th 2007 2:47PM by Brian White
Filed under: Drug, All Cancers
Although cancer drugs are considered to be quite expensive, two new pieces of analysis have concluded that you indeed get what you pay for. Well, at least when it comes to drugs made specifically for breast cancer patients.
Both Aromasin and Herceptin have been proven in clinical trials to improve survival rates in breast cancer sufferers, according to this. In addition, newer breast cancer drugs just about to enter the pipeline (along with other cancer drugs) are raising questions from health officials and insurance companies, who are increasingly wanting to know how
economically and clinically viable all these new products actually are.
Because, if newer cancer drugs are more expensive than traditional cancer treatments but are better for the medical and personal economies in the long run, then "you get what you pay for" will have been proven again.
Tags: cancer drug treatments, cancer drugs, cancer medications, CancerDrugs, CancerDrugTreatments, CancerMedications, drugs
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1. The respected cancer journals are publishing articles that identify safer and more effective treatment regimens, yet few oncologists are incorporating these synergistic methods into their clinical practice. Cancer patients often suffer through chemotherapy sessions that do not integrate all possibilities.
The major obstacle in controlling cancer drug prices is the widespread inappropriate use of anti-cancer drugs. As the increasing numbers and types of anti-cancer drugs are developed, oncologists become more and more likely to misuse them in their practice. There is seldom a "standard" therapy which has been "proven" to be superior to any other therapy. What may work for one, may not work for another.
"Targeted" therapeutics provide mostly small benefits to patients. Each of these new targeted drugs are not for everybody. Even when the disease is the same type, different patients' tumors respond differently to the same agents. These "smart" drugs do not work for everyone.
It is impossible to design a single chemotherapy protocol that is effective against all types of cancer. The oncologist might need to administer several chemotherapy drugs at varying doses because tumor cells express survival factors with a wide degree of individual cell variability. A test to determine the efficacy of these drugs in a patient is the first step in personalizing treatment to the individual.
Posted at 5:27PM on Jun 27th 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski