17. Malignant, Paying 100,000$ for drugs that do not work!

Lecture Summary
Many new cancer drugs have marginal benefit or do not work at all. Their prices are obscenely high. Sadly, like the idiots we are, we pay for them. This podcast reviews the first chapter of Vinayak Prasad's book Malignant. The first chapter is a must read for any physician and the entire book is fantastic.

Key Points
- Fojo et al performed an analysis of 71 consecutive drugs from 2002 to 2014 used for solid tumors like breast and colon cancer. They found that the median improvement in survival was just 2.1 months.
- New cancer drugs in 2015 cost an average of 100,000$ per year of treatment.
- Drug companies are making obscene amounts of money on drugs that do not work.
- The price of cancer medications in no way reflects how well they work.
- American healthcare has completely lost its way!

References
- Prasad, VK. Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2020.
- Fojo et al. Unintended consequences of expensive cancer therapeutics-the pursuit of marginal indications and a me-too mentality that stifles innovation and creativity. JAMA Otolaryngologists. 2014.