New developments in fighting cancer are just around the corner, but one expert believes the high price for potential life-saving treatments is arbitrary.
Oncology experts and doctors from around the world are meeting in Chicago for the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, which wraps up Tuesday. Researchers announced a slew of new results for treating cancer and discussed how they could be paid for.
Here are four top developments from the meeting so far:
1. Immunotherapy products show enormous potential
Drugs that boost the immune system to fight cancer cells are the showstoppers of the meeting, with several clinical trials showing promising results in tackling all types of cancers.
One such immunotherapy was examined for treating advanced liver cancer and another to treat patients with neck and head cancers, the organization said.
A new treatment profiled at the meeting showed promise in treating a condition called glioblastoma that causes brain tumors.
An early clinical trial showed that patients survived about six months longer on a new type of vaccine compared with a group on a placebo.
Unlike a regular vaccine taken to prevent a disease such as measles, a cancer treatment vaccine tries to get the immune system to attack cancer cells in a body that already has the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
Another trial showed that two immunotherapy products taken together shrank tumors in advanced skin cancer patients by 60 percent.
The two drugs, ipilimumab and nivolumab, are checkpoint inhibitors that spur immune system cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
2. How much will it cost?
The cost for the melanoma combination could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Dr. Leonard Saltz with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said during the meeting.
The price is one example of a decades-old trend that is unsustainable, he said.
“Cancer drug prices are not related to the value of the drug, rather the prices are based on what has come before and what the seller believes the market will bear,” Saltz said in a recap of his session.
This reflects a decades-long trend in rising oncology drug costs, a trend that Dr. Saltz called “unsustainable.” He said the rising costs of these drugs do not reflect development costs, nor do they help drive innovation.
“Cancer drug prices are not related to the value of the drug, rather the prices are based on what has come before, and what the seller believes the market will bear.”
He said that the Food and Drug Administration’s inability to consider costs and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ inability to negotiate those costs with drug companies is contributing to the problem. To begin to change this, Dr. Saltz said, the community must start by acknowledging there is an upper limit to what we pay to treat each patient with cancer. “It’s a very unpleasant discussion. It’s very uncomfortable,” but it is necessary, he said.
High drug prices are becoming a bigger concern for the public, especially for cancer drugs. Experts have said that Americans want prices to be tied more toward the value of a drug.
President Obama included negotiating power for CMS in his latest budget, but the effort has gone nowhere.
The debate on pricing comes as the House Energy and Commerce Committee just advanced a massive bill that gives drug makers more perks for developing new cancer and other needed treatments.
3. New clinical trial to begin on precision medicine.
One of the biggest problems with treating cancer is its uniqueness. Cancer cells in one lung cancer patient could be different than another.
This means that a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment is difficult and a more precise approach is needed.
In light of this problem, the National Institutes of Health is spearheading a new precision medicine initiative to create more targeted therapies.
The NIH announced Monday it will start enrollment next month in a massive clinical trial.
The trial seeks to determine whether a drug targeting a person’s genetic mutation in a tumor is effective regardless of whether the patient has lung or skin cancer.
The institute will match each patient in the trial with a therapy that targets a genetic abnormality in his or her tumor, the NIH said.
The trial is part of a larger effort by NIH to get genetic information for one million Americans to conduct research on targeted drugs. However, officials have recently said that goal is more aspirational.
4. Changes help pediatric cancer survivors live longer
Survivors of pediatric cancer are living longer, a new study found.
Survivors have a much higher risk of early mortality compared with the general population.
Researchers reported that 30 years after a cancer diagnosis, 18 percent of survivors are deceased. Many die in their 30s or 40s.
However, reducing the intensity of cancer treatments and improved screening to catch the disease earlier helped “extend the lifespan of survivors,” said Dr. Gregory Armstrong with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, according to a summary of his session.
Armstrong presented the study on reducing later deaths in pediatric cancer survivors.
Researchers examined children diagnosed with cancer from 1970 to 1999. It then examined the 15-year mortality rate for survivors.
Armstrong’s team found that the 15-year rate was 10 percent in the 1970s, around 8 percent in the 1980s and down to nearly 6 percent in the ’90s.
