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Recorded on June 1, 2015
Sapna Patel, MD,
Assistant Professor, Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Carol Preston:
We talk about targeted therapies, immunotherapies. I'm also wondering about patient access to these therapies. I know it's been a hot topic at ASCO about the cost versus value. What is your perspective on that?
Dr. Patel:
So in the field of melanoma, we're just starting to broach these topics. For years, we had therapies that could keep people alive for just a few months, and so, you know, the cost was not so much taken into play there. Now we have therapies where the duration of treatment may be several years, and the potential benefit is even more years down the road.
And so the question becomes what is the cost of that treatment, and what is the cost effectiveness of that therapy? If you give somebody an expensive treatment and then they no longer need a second- or third-line therapy, you may have done some up-front good at the cost of financial burden. However, if you use a different medicine up front, but they do need a second- and third-line therapy it becomes challenging to know where—where the benefit is in terms of value. So in melanoma now that we finally have some effective agents that are moving the needle, these questions are becoming very salient.
Published By :
Patient Power
Date :
Jul 31, 2015
