Personalized Medicine Coalition Statement on ASCO’s New Conceptual Framework

July 2015, Vol 6, No 6
Edward Abrahams, PhD
President, Personalized Medicine Coalition, Washington, DC

In the face of escalating costs of cancer drugs, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) rightly asks, what is the value of these new medicines?

But, seemingly locked in a one-size-fits-all paradigm, its proposed conceptual framework to create “user-friendly, standardized tools”1 to evaluate those drugs, paradoxically could unintentionally set back the progress we have seen in recent years. Discoveries in science and technology have led to the development and delivery of targeted therapies based on a molecular understanding of each patient’s disease.

Recent progress in cancer care based on the principles of personalized medicine has remarkably extended the lives of many patients with cancer for whom there were no viable therapies only a few years ago.

The fear here is that by focusing mainly on the price tag, ASCO’s proposed “net health benefit” score will become a blunt instrument that curtails effective treatments for selected patients and cuts off promising areas of research.

Further refinement of what now looks like a rather crude tool,1 could, however, help to ensure that the right patients get the right treatment so that everyone benefits, progress is ensured, and overall costs decline.



Reference

  1. Schnipper LE, Davidson NE, Wollins DS, et al. American Society of Clinical Oncology statement: a conceptual framework to assess the value of cancer treatment options. J Clin Oncol. 2015 Jun 22. Epub ahead of print.

Related Articles