Oncology’s “Hockey Stick” Moment for the Cost of Cancer Drugs—The Climate Is About to Change

Blase N. Polite; Mark J. Ratain; Allen S. Lichter

doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.1828

Viewpoint

October 1, 2020

Oncology’s “Hockey Stick” Moment for the Cost of Cancer Drugs—The Climate Is About to Change

Blase N. Polite, MD, MPP¹; Mark J. Ratain, MD^1,2; Allen S. Lichter, MD²

Author Affiliations Article Information

¹Section of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
²Value in Cancer Care Consortium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

JAMA Oncol. 2021;7(1):25-26. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.1828

Full Text

1 Comment for this article

EXPAND ALL

October 9, 2020

Just Talk and No Action !!

Dilipsinh Solanki, MD | Community Practice of Hem Onc

1. I am disappointed that the authors expressed their political attitude because they could only find the analog of climate change to introduce a serious topic in health care. They lament “the world has done nothing to address the problem of climate that was raised 1000 years ago”.

2. Here is my analogy. YOU ARE OUR “WORLD”! You Gentlemen are respected authorities in my field. Besides that, ALL of you have been in a position of authority and leadership to effect a change. You have done so little ,it equals nothing except predicting and projecting the apocalypse in way less than 1000 years.

3. I was heartened by the study Dr. Lichter reported on Zytiga: with a simple maneuver of adding low fat meal, we could cut the dose by 75% and thus the cost without detriment. When I mentioned this during a discussion where a colleague asked what to do for a patient who cannot afford full dose and does not qualify for assistance, the moderator , an “expert” rejected the idea even though I mentioned the source of my info. She of course did not have any suggestion. The program was sponsored.

4. There are MANY agents , mostly targeted and molecular whi ch are also the most expensive that could be studied and are not. I have seen NO OTHER efforts like the Zytiga which had fewer than 200 pts ( talk about a lack of interest)!!

5. So the World has done nothing about weather because World is not one country or one medical specialty. What is our excuse??

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None Reported

Oncology’s “Hockey Stick” Moment for the Cost of Cancer Drugs—The Climate Is About to Change

Others Also Liked

Featured Articles

USPSTF Recommendation Statements

Blogs

Oncology’s “Hockey Stick” Moment for the Cost of Cancer Drugs—The Climate Is About to Change

Read More About

Citation

Download citation file:

Others Also Liked

Select Your Interests