Posted by Michael Wonder on 07 Sep 2016
New anti-cancer drugs associated with large increases in costs and life expectancy
7 September 2016 - Spending on anti-cancer medicines in the US has risen rapidly over the past two decades.
A key policy question is whether new anti-cancer medicines offer value, given their high cost. Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare database, Howard et al. assessed the value of new cancer treatments in routine clinical practice for patients with metastatic breast, lung, or kidney cancer or chronic myeloid leukemia in the periods 1996–2000 and 2007–11. The results of their analysis have been published in the latest issue of Health Affairs.
They found that there were large increases in medical costs, but also large gains in life expectancy. For example, among patients with breast cancer who received physician-administered drugs, lifetime costs—including costs for outpatient and inpatient care—increased by $72,000 and life expectancy increased by thirteen months. Changes in life expectancy and costs were much smaller among patients who did not receive these drugs.
