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 In the last five years, novel medicines have revolutionized
prospects for people with metastatic melanoma, the most deadly form
of skin cancer.
But the high cost of the treatments, which can top $100,000 a year,
means thousands still do not get the new drugs, a survey found.
Out of an estimated 19,250 metastatic melanoma patients treated
annually, 5,228 or 27 percent do not have access to new drugs that
are now recommended under European treatment guidelines.
"This is especially the case for eastern and south-eastern European
countries, where a majority of patients are still treated with
palliative chemotherapy that does not prolong overall survival,"
said Lidija Kandolf-Sekulovic, a professor of dermatology at
Serbia's Military Medical Academy.
New drugs including immunotherapies from the likes of Merck & Co and
Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as so-called BRAFi+MEKi combinations
from Novartis and Roche, can prolong overall survival to more than
18 months. In some cases, survival is now measured in many years.
But these medicines cost far more than conventional chemotherapy,
straining European healthcare budgets.
International experts are meeting this weekend in Copenhagen for the
annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress to
discuss the latest drug trials and future cancer care.
The public health challenges in patient access to therapies is a
major theme of the meeting, as doctors grapple with the implications
of using a new generation of medicines.
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"Doctors should treat patients with the best drug at the best time
... it is not their role to decide about the cost," Solange Peters,
head of medical oncology at Lausanne University Hospital,
Switzerland, told Reuters.
"But I do think we need more doctors going into politics to try and
inform this debate because it's going to be a big problem for the
next 20 years to come."
In the case of metastatic melanoma, the survey found that in western
Europe 70 percent of patients were treated with the latest
innovative medicines, while in eastern Europe less than 10 percent
of patients got them.
Alexander Eniu, who chairs ESMO's global policy committee, said it
was "unacceptable" to see such inequalities in drug availability and
accessibility.
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