More and more money is going to cancer medicines, the Integrated Cancer Center of the Netherlands (IKNL) reported on Tuesday. In 2012, a quarter of the total medicines budget went to cancer drugs. In 2021, this was more than half of total expenditure. And the size of the total medicines budget is also increasing.
In 2021, 1.5 billion euros went to resources for the treatment of cancer, or oncolytics. Most of the money went to hematological malignancies, which includes leukemia. In addition, a lot of money went to lung cancer and melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
The drugs work well in some cancer types, but IKNL also notes that there is little improvement in survival in patients with metastatic cancer. Professor Valery Lemmens, member of the IKNL board of directors, points out that society must look carefully at expenditure. “The number of patients with cancer is increasing, and we want to treat these patients as best as possible now and in the future. This requires more research.”
In some cases, cancer drugs cost more than necessary, says Lemmens. “Sometimes drugs are just as effective if they are used for a shorter period of time or in a lower dose. Drugs that are now being developed for a large group of patients, while only a portion of them benefit, cause many patients to suffer unnecessarily from side effects.” According to him, it is important to find out for whom the treatment works well, so that doctors can provide more targeted treatment.
By: ANP
2023-10-03 23:50:30
#IKNL #money #cancer #medicine
