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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, huge sums are spent on many cancer drugs that only prolong the life of a user a very short time. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203872404574258302761872972.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
"The widespread use of expensive cancer drugs to prolong patients’ lives by just weeks or months was called into question by an article published Monday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"Crunching data from published studies, the authors found that treating a lung-cancer patient with Erbitux, a drug that costs $80,000 for an 18-week regimen, prolongs survival by only 1.2 months.
"How to control escalating spending on end-of-life care is one of the thorniest questions facing lawmakers working on the overhaul of the U.S. health-care system.
"Some countries, like the United Kingdom, agree to pay for expensive drugs only if they meet a certain threshold of efficacy, but no such rationing exists in the U.S.
"The authors, Tito Fojo, an oncologist with the National Cancer Institute, and Christine Grady, a bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, called for changes in both the testing and practice of medicine, noting that more than 90% of cancer medicines approved in the past four years in the U.S. cost more than $20,000 for a 12-week course."
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