Published 14 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a778
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a778

News

News feature: Costly US anticancer drugs pose problems for doctors and patients

Fred Charatan

1 Florida

As the BMA calls for a royal commission to consider copayments for cancer drugs in the UK, Fred Charatan looks at the problem in the US

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

The high cost of anticancer drugs is posing serious problems for patients and doctors in the United States. Even patients who are insured face difficulties because of the expense of copayments.

The American Cancer Society said that the cost of cancer care in the US rose by 25% between 2004 and 2007, from $72bn to $89bn (£45bn; {euro}56bn), partly because of the increased cost of drugs.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology is so concerned about the cost of drugs that it has set up a task force to help doctors discuss costs with patients. It is expected to report this autumn.

Drugs that are causing particular problems include Genentech’s trastuzumab (Herceptin) for breast cancer, which costs about $40 000 a year, and bevacizumab (Avastin), which is licensed in the US for metastatic breast cancer as well as colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, and which costs about $92 . . . [Full text of this article]


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