Will high cost keep cancer breakthrough from widespread use?

Will high cost keep cancer breakthrough from widespread use?

As usual, a huge medical breakthrough which could help millions has a big price tag. In this case, I'm talking about the lung cancer treatment called Iressa – a new pill that targets specific growth receptors on cancer cells, and it's less harmful to patients than a regular course of chemotherapy.

Currently, there are very few treatments for this disease, in spite of the fact that it kills as many 1.4 million people every year.

Iressa's upsides are huge: it replaces chemotherapy for patients who've already undergone chemo. Its side effects are not nearly as extreme as chemo (Iressa only causes diarrhea, rash and acne). Meanwhile, it seems nearly as effective as chemo, with 32 percent of Iressa patients still alive after 32 months (compared with 34 months for chemo patients).

The downside: a course of treatment for Iressa costs far more than a course of chemo treatment.

According to Chris Twelves, a professor of clinical cancer oncology at Leeds University, "Though the benefits of a prolonged life are modest, patients … get a higher quality of life. That should swing the pendulum in [Iressa's] favor."

Wanna bet? The high cost will make Iressa a hard sell insurance companies. Which means that more often than not, this next weapon against lung cancer is likely to sit idle in the arsenal until it becomes more affordable.

Breaking through mainstream's hype,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.


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