How much is a month of life worth?

This may be a strange question because prices for anything are determined by markets, and there is no market for a month of life – unless it is your life. Then the question is how much would you pay for that month or, how much would you ask your insurance company or Medicare to pay? I bring this up because of my concern (as well as many other people) about the cost of new cancer drugs. When I first began practicing oncology, it was an exciting time. Many new cancer chemotherapy drugs were being developed, and many of them had major benefits for patients. Also, they were not very expensive. We would be shocked if a course of therapy cost more than a few hundred dollars. A startling fact to me is that there are no more new chemotherapy drugs being introduced. All the new drugs being developed are so called “targeted therapies”. These are drugs that block certain aspects of a cancer cell’s ability to grow and divide. They tend to be appealing because they are often pills, and not associated with the well-known side effects of chemotherapy drugs such as nausea and hair loss. But they do have side effects. They are just not as dramatic. Also, there are two facts about these drugs that are important. First, on average, they rarely prolong life more than a couple of months in patients with widespread cancer. Second they are enormously expensive. Often they cost about $40,000 or more just for one extra month of life. And who knows how good the quality of life is that mont...
Source: Dr.Kattlove's Cancer Blog - Category: Oncologists Source Type: blogs