Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
National Trial Of Cancer Treatments Targeting Genetic Mutations Set To Begin
The National Cancer Institute’s announcement Monday that it will soon begin a nationwide trial to test treatments based on the genetic mutations in patients’ tumors, rather than on where the tumors occur in the body, highlights a profound shift taking place in the development of cancer drugs. Researchers increasingly are using DNA sequencing, which has become far faster and cheaper over time, to identify molecular abnormalities in cancers. (Dennis and Bernstein, 6/1)
Last year, Anthem started changing how it paid for cancer care, aiming to blunt costs and push oncologists to adhere to standardized treatment guidelines. Its program, which began last July in six states and has since expanded, offered oncologists a $350-a-month payment for each patient who was on one of its recommended regimens. (Mathews, 6/1)
And a speech by a leading oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center criticizing the costs of cancer drugs has reverberations -
As the one-year cost of cancer drugs edges up to $200,000 per patient, a top doctor from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center used his speech before a massive gathering of colleagues to call for limits on the cost of cancer therapies. “These drugs cost too much,” Dr. Leonard Saltz, a gastrointestinal oncologist, said in an unusual speech at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting on Sunday. (Langreth and Koons, 6/1)
NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Dr. Leonard Saltz, chief of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, about his concerns regarding the high price of cancer treatment drugs. (6/1)
