Are Cancer Drugs Worth the Money?
JUNE 1, 2009
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, and Senior Scholar, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, is quoted in a Forbes story addressing the high costs of oral chemotherapy agents in the face of disappointing study results like those on the drug Avastin which were presented at this weekend's meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The drug can cost more than $50,000 a year, and many insurance companies and Medicare plans cap coverage and require patients to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket -- while chemotherapies delivered by IV in a doctor's office or hospital are covered. DeMichele says that better targeting the patients who will benefit from this and other oral chemotherapies will be key to trimming the spiraling costs associated with the drugs. There are clues as to how patients most likely to benefit from Avastin might be identified, she says, but these avenues haven't been pursued yet. "We're still treating people in an unselected way," DeMichele says.
