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Huge Disparities in Access to New Cancer Drugs Across Europe
Published on 05 August 2016 back to previous
Huge disparities across Europe in the availability and out-of-pocket costs of anticancer drugs used in the treatment of some of the most common cancers are highlighted in a new survey funded by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).Results from the survey show that many patients in Eastern Europe have little or no access to the latest treatments, including recent efficacious and targeted therapies for melanoma, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and metastatic breast cancer. Such drugs were either unavailable or were available only at full cost in Eastern Europe, whereas patients in Western Europe typically enjoyed free or heavily subsidized access.
The survey is published in the August issue of the Annals of Oncology.
"For those committed to ensuring equal access to cancer care, this is a landmark study that lays out the extent of current inequities and opens the discussion as to how to begin addressing them," lead author Nathan I. Cherny, MD, Cancer Pain and Palliative Medicine Service, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel, commented in a statement.
"The impact of these disparities is most keenly felt by patients with incurable diseases, where improved outcomes are dependent on expensive anticancer agents," he said.
"In contrast, the disparities are less pronounced in curative situations, where treatments such as adjuvant therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer patients, for example, is generally subsidized and available in most countries," he said.
He added, "For those committed to ensuring equal access to cancer care, this is a landmark study that lays out the extent of current inequities and opens the discussion as to how to begin addressing them."
Josep Tabernero, MD, PhD, from Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, and president elect of the ESMO, which funded the study, believes that the findings offer national institutions a starting point to improve accessibility to cancer drugs.
