Efficacy, safety, and cost of new anticancer drugs

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7358.269

BMJ 2002;325:269-271 ( 3 August )

Education and debate

Efficacy, safety, and cost of new anticancer drugs

Silvio Garattini, director, Vittorio Bertele', head, regulatory policy laboratory.

Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, 20157 Milan, Italy

Correspondence to: S Garattini sgarattini@marionegri.it

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Italian pharmacologists Silvio Garattini and Vittorio Bertele' note that new anticancer drugs reaching the European marketin 1995-2000 offered few or no substantial advantages over existingpreparations, yet cost several times $---$ in one case 350 times $---$ asmuch

Though only an imperfect indicator of progress in cancer control,¹ age standardised mortality in the European Union, forboth sexes combined, had been increasing up to 1988; since thenit has decreased from 147 to 136 per 100 000 inhabitants.²Prevention is probably one of the main reasons for this drop,particularly the decrease in tobacco smoking; another reason isthe use of screening for early diagnosis of cancers of the cervixand breast and possibly also of the colon and rectum..

The greatest changes have been 4500 fewer deaths from childhood tumours and 4000 fewer from lymphomas (Hodgkin's disease)each year over the past four decades. Among solid tumours, advanceshave been made in treating breast cancer, in . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Cost-effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs: Andrea Messori, et al.
bmj.com, 5 Aug 2002 [Full text]
New anticancer drugs offer substantial advantage: Silvio Monfardini, et al.
bmj.com, 6 Aug 2002 [Full text]
Anticancer drugs do benefit patients: Jeremy Barton, et al.
bmj.com, 13 Aug 2002 [Full text]
New anticancer drugs for haematological and solid malignancies.: Wendy L. Lawson
bmj.com, 14 Aug 2002 [Full text]
Article has done no favours for cancer patients: Hilary Calvert, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Aug 2002 [Full text]
Authors' reply: Silvio Garattini, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Sep 2002 [Full text]