U.S. Cancer doctors drop pricey drugs thay have little effect

U.S. oncologists, aware that patients are paying more of the costs of expensive cancer drugs, are increasingly declining to prescribe medicines that have scant or no effect, even as a last resort.
At least half a dozen drugs, including colon cancer treatments Cyramza, from Eli Lilly & Co, and Stivarga, sold by Bayer AG, aren't worth prices that can exceed $100,000 a year, top cancer specialists said.If specialists do start considering a drug's cost in their prescribing habits, such decisions could dent the multi-billion dollar cancer drug business.
Worldwide spending on cancer medicines reached $100 billion in 2014, a year-over-year jump of more than 10 percent. "There are drugs that don't make much sense given how much they cost, given their small benefits," said Dr Peter Bach, director of Memorial Sloan Kettering's Center for Health Policy and Outcomes in New York. "There are drugs that can cost up to $10,000 a month that provide, at the median, a few weeks or less than a month of additional life, but with substantial toxicity." Major medical groups including the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology are developing ways to consider a drug's affordability in their treatment decisions.