Because differences exist between individual tumors within each cancer type, it may be more important to design carefully tailored combinations of therapies for different patients than to determine pricing structures, say three oncologists in interviews published Nov. 27 on the Health Affairs web site.
Although promising new treatments targeted at molecules produced in particular tumors can extend lives while avoiding some of the debilitating side effects that have characterized traditional cancer drugs, they also carry a very high price tag. How can the drug and insurance industries work with the health policy community to establish ground rules for protecting innovation and advancing patient care, while also keeping the economics of health care firmly in mind?
These questions are among the issues raised by Health Affairs contributing editor Barbara Culliton, who spoke with Lee Newcomer, MD, an oncologist who is the business leader of oncology services at UnitedHealthcare in Minneapolis; Thomas Roberts, MD, a former Harvard oncologist who is currently a hedge fund manager for Noonday Global Management in Charlotte, N.C.; and Victor Velculescu, MD, an assistant professor of oncology and director of the Cancer Genetics Library at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
The interviews suggest one possible approach toward reconciling innovation and affordability: Direct each new drug to only those patients whose tumors contain the specific molecules likely to make them amenable to the treatment. For some new treatments, such as the breast cancer drug Herceptin, diagnostic tests already exist that can steer the drug to the patients most likely to benefit; for other treatments, more research will be needed to develop such tests. Access the interviews.
