Limited Patient Gains Linked to Expensive Cancer Medications
The rapid introduction of novel cancer drugs is occurring without sufficient long-term evaluation of their efficacy for patients. Even after several years, many of these drugs still lack substantial scientific evidence confirming their ability to enhance life expectancy or enhance quality of life ().
Cancer drugs are a dominant area within the pharmaceutical industry, which is constantly developing and launching new treatments. Cancer drugs are approved centrally by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and are often subsequently launched in European countries after national reimbursement processes".
Accelerated Approvals of Cancer Drugs Clear Patient Benefit
To reach patients sooner, it has become increasingly common for cancer drugs to be approved based on studies that show an effect on biomarkers, but without clear evidence that they extend life or improve patients' quality of life. A study by health economics researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that there is still a lack of such evidence for many new cancer drugs, even several years after their launch.‘A significant portion of cancer drugs introduced with limited supporting evidence still lack definitive proof regarding their impact on patient survival and quality of life. #CancerDrugs’
The study includes multi-year follow-up data for 22 cancer drug indications approved for reimbursement in Sweden during the last ten years. The average follow-up time for these drug indications was 6.6 years.
For seven of the 22 drug indications, at least one study clearly showed that the treatment either improved quality of life or increased life expectancy. For the other 15, randomized controlled trials failed to show any such effect, or there were no results from these trials. Only one of the drugs had scientific evidence of both increased life expectancy and improved quality of life for its indication.
"The lack of confirmatory evidence for important patient outcomes is problematic and creates uncertainty about how these drugs actually contribute to meaningful patient benefit, and ultimately how effectively resources are being used within healthcare."
The results have been published in the scientific journal Clinical Drug Investigation.
Reference:
- Cancer Drugs Reimbursed with Limited Evidence on Overall Survival and Quality of Life: Do Follow-Up Studies Confirm Patient Benefits? - (https:link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40261-023-01285-4)