A third of the population is diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. Almost all families have suffered. It is a disease that causes a lot of feelings and fears. Politicians, the popularity of search without end, are ruthlessly exploited for votes to capture a field of battle. The promises are easy, but their delivery is fraught with difficulties. And the media feeds the press releases, cancer charities, the biotech companies and the growing number of disputes continues to fill column inches a mixture of exaggerated good news and bad news.
Much of the technology changes so fast that it was a very difficult environment for clinicians at the forefront. And patients are often left confused and afraid of the difference between what is offered to them and what they read and can be found on the Internet.
This week, a report by The Lancet Oncology, the cost of cancer treatment with high-income countries, the author of numerous experts, patient representatives and economists, provides a clear conclusion. Simply, there is no health system can afford to pay large increases in prolonging the lives of cancer patients in a few weeks. We're really at a crossroads.
The fact that the population of the western world is aging with an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle, cancer is dramatically increasing. The cost of new technologies to address this could be disconcerting. The last eight drugs approved this summer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will pay an average of almost € 10,000 per patient per month - not counting the cost of their administration, or take care of their side effects. This is a new level of public spending little utility: two and seven months of life, depending on the drug.
I lobbied for a much better patient access to expensive drugs in Britain. Letters to newspapers, MPs government officials and ministers of my colleagues and I have had some influence. So cancer is the Big C for us!
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