We Need To Raise The Bar To Improve Cancer Treatments. What ’s The Best Way To Do It?

Over the past 20 years, we have witnessed an unprecedented development of new life-science technologies. Although clinical outcomes have also improved, the benefits often remain out of reach for many patients. Translating scientific and technological gains into clinically meaningful outcomes that are accessible and affordable to all who need them is one of the great challenges of our time. Several prominent voices have called on the field to “raise the bar” and aim higher in research efforts, to measurably and meaningfully lengthen and improve patients’ lives. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), for example, has defined minimum thresholds for “clinically meaningful outcomes,” such as three-months additional survival for patients diagnosed with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. The crucial question, though, is how to achieve these gains. We suggest a pragmatic approach: Acknowledge the challenges facing drug-development research today and pursue effective long-term strategies. We highlight three realities that are often overlooked and discuss ways to address them. Reality #1: Headline results from initial clinical trials do not predict the ultimate value of a treatment A systematic analysis based on the Continuous Innovation Indicators (CII) tool (submitted for publication) shows that effect sizes obtained in registration trials have never predicted the ultimate success of the treatment. Most treatment staples used today entered the market with modes...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Drugs and Medical Innovation clinical trials Source Type: blogs