#LCSM chat 8/13 8pm ET: How can we fight the rising cost of cancer care?
Q A July 23 article in Newsweek titled “The High Cost of Cancer Care: Your Money or Your Life?” emphasizes a topic of increasing concern: the escalating costs of new cancer drugs, and the toll this takes on patients and families. A presentation at ASCO 2015 titled “Perspectives in Value” graphically showed the escalating price of cancer drugs in recent years, and how those prices soar off the charts for some new immunotherapies. The presentation also showed how prices of targeted therapy drugs don’t seem to go down as more patients use… Read More
#LCSM Chat 4/23 8PM ET: Discussing the Role of the Cost of Cancer Therapies. Does Cost Limit Care?
Written by #LCSM Moderator Dr. H. Jack West Earlier this week, I met a young women newly confronted with the terribly difficult news of a diagnosis of advanced lung cancer. As we discussed the potential of finding a targeted mutation that could be treated by an oral targeted therapy, I mentioned that it typically takes several days to a couple of weeks to get approval and delivery of one of these agents, since they cost anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000 per month in the US. Though I reassured her that this treatment… Read More
#LCSM Chat Topic 9/25: Challenges in making LDCT screening chest scans standard of care for high risk patients
It has been a couple of years since the National Lung Screening Trial demonstrated a clear survival benefit for low dose CT (LDCT) screening of patients who have a high risk of lung cancer (with “high risk” defined as age 55-75 and a significant smoking history). While lung cancer screening is offered in programs at various centers around the US, it remains a controversial procedure that has not been approved by Medicare as a covered service. On Thursday, September 25th, 8PM ET/ 5PM PT, we’ll discuss the existing barriers in lung cancer… Read More
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