Most oncologists quality of survival value of life, Study Finds Duke
The results of the study based on a survey of 768 doctors, considered two hypothetical scenarios involving a patient with metastatic cancer and one year of life. The first scenario asked the doctor how much more in the month of survival gained, it would be necessary to provide a new drug to prescribe. The cost of the new drug of $ 75, 000 more than the standard treatment. The second scenario asked the doctor to indicate the highest cost at which they would prescribe a medication to improve the quality of life without prolonging survival.‘Currently, individual oncologists to decide whether the benefits of expensive new drugs justify their costs,’ says Ubel. ‘Cost of treatment for cancer is unlikely to give up when there is such a wide range of what oncologists consider reasonable.’
On average, oncologists are willing to prescribe treatments that cost about USD245, 000 to extend life for a year, but the threshold price has dropped to around $ 119, 000 a year for treatments that improve the quality of life without prolong the lives of patients.
The researchers also discovered a wide range of cancer that doctors considered reasonable processing charges. The threshold varies from about $ 10, $ 000 to about $ 5 per life year (QALY), a standard assessment of the cost-effectiveness of medical interventions. The spending thresholds assessed in this study were also measured in QALYs.
Other study authors include Michael A. Kozminski and Aleksandra Jankovic Science Centre and the decision in behavioral medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Peter J. Neuman Institute for Health Policy Studies and Clinical Research, Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and Eric S. Nadler Charles Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
The results highlight a crucial problem in the struggle to control health care costs, Ubel said. Increasingly, physicians are encouraged to assess whether the expensive cancer drugs – some of which offer only small gains in survival – valid prescription.
But according to Ubel, the data on the cost-effectiveness has no guidelines for determining the appropriate value for the treatment of cancer Financial.
‘Oncologists are naturally focused on survival, but must give the same attention to quality of life that people experience during and after treatment,’ said senior author Peter Ubel, a professor of Economics at Duke University School of Business Fuqua.
Respondents have always chosen to spend more for treatments that prolong life to improve the quality of treatment.