Posted by Michael Wonder on 01 Dec 2016
Scientific evidence and financial obligations to ensure access to biosimilars for cancer treatment
1 December 2016 - Articles in medical journals add to the scientific body of research that ultimately influences care.
On rare occasions a single study changes the practice of medicine, but in general most clinical research reports contribute to a body of evidence that becomes part of the fabric of clinical decision making, including individual decisions of physicians and patients as well as use in guidelines and recommendations of professional societies and governmental agencies.
In the latest issue of JAMA, Rugo and colleagues report findings from a multi-centre clinical trial that may influence care for patients with breast cancer around the world. The authors evaluated the equivalence of a proposed trastuzumab biosimilar compared with the standard therapy, the humanised monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, for achieving overall response and for safety among 458 women without prior treatment for ERBB2 (HER2)–positive metastatic breast cancer.
