JOIN USAlarmed by the rapid escalation in the price of cancer drugs, the nation’s leading oncology society unveiled recently a new way for doctors and patients to evaluate different treatments - one that pointedly includes a medicine’s cost as well as its effectiveness and side effects. The release by the American Society of Clinical Oncology of what it calls its “value framework,” is part of a change in thinking among doctors, who once largely chose drugs based on their medical attributes alone. The major cardiology societies, for instance, are also now starting to factor cost into their evaluation of drugs.
“The reality is that many patients don’t get this information from their doctors and many doctors don’t have the information they need to talk with their patients about costs,” Dr Richard Schilsky, chief medical officer of the oncology society, said in a news conference.
He said the price of new cancer drugs now averaged about $10,000 a month, and some cost $30,000 a month, which can mean prohibitive co-payments even for some patients with good insurance. “Many cancer patients are facing severe financial strain, even bankruptcy in some cases,” he said.
The value framework envisions considering two costs: the out-of-pocket costs for the patient and the overall cost of a drug to the health system. The framework,published online by the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is more a proposed methodo-logy than a final evaluation of different drugs. The society said it would solicit comments from the public and then possibly revise it.