Tag Archives: cancer

The Cost of New Cancer Drugs (In One Picture)

Posted on May 9, 2017

“Specialty drugs” – that’s what they’re called. Not the pills of old, these pharmaceuticals are often given intravenously or through injection. Often more biologic in their synthesis than chemical, they are expensive to produce and often target narrow disease processes, … Continue reading →

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Unsustainable

Posted on March 27, 2017

This picture shows changes in the cost of treating colon cancer, from 1993-2005. It shows unsustainable growth in these expenditures: By unsustainable, however, I do not mean unjustifiable. Patients with colon cancer have much better prognoses in 2005 than 1993, … Continue reading →

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Don’t Let Your Physician Tell You What To Do Without Finding Out Your Goals

Posted on October 7, 2016

A recent study of men with early-stage prostate cancer found no difference in 10-year death rates, regardless of whether their doctors actively monitored the cancers for signs of growth or eradicated the men’s cancers with surgery or radiation. What does … Continue reading →

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Three Things to Know about Future Healthcare Spending

Posted on July 8, 2016

For my entire life, a half century and counting, healthcare spending in the U.S. has almost always risen faster than inflation. Sometimes it’s relatively slow, sometimes it’s relatively fast, but no matter the time, healthcare spending is climbing. Getting healthcare … Continue reading →

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Specialty Drugs at Especially High Prices

Posted on May 25, 2016

There have been many wonderful new medications in the past decade or so, drugs that finally bring hope for many people with serious illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and even some advanced cancers. But these drugs often come at … Continue reading →

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The Wrong Way To React When Terminally Ill Patients Cry

Posted on March 18, 2016

Just three weeks earlier, she had noticed something strange about one of her breasts. An irregular shape. Her daughter brought her to the doctor, and soon the patient, I’ll call her Amanda, was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage “to be … Continue reading →

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The Future of Disease – in One Picture

Posted on October 5, 2015

Here are some projections on what illnesses Medicare enrollees are experiencing now, and what they will be experiencing 20 years from now, courtesy of the Brookings Institute:

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Cancer Drugs Aren’t As Cost-Effective As They Used To Be

Posted on September 30, 2015

Cancer drugs have become increasingly expensive in recent years. No one blinks anymore when a new lung cancer or colon cancer treatment comes to market priced at more than $100,000 per patient. In part, we don’t blink because we have … Continue reading →

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Which Cancers Do We Spend Most of Our Money On?

Posted on August 14, 2015

There has been lots written lately about the soaring cost of cancer care. You’re spending a lot on cancer recently in part because of many wonderful new treatments that come with a substantial price tag. But there has been less … Continue reading →

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What Do Cancer Centers Think Patients Are Looking For?

Posted on May 12, 2015

If you were a cancer center trying to get patients to come to receive care at your facility, what message would you send them? In other words, what would you as a cancer center director think people would value in … Continue reading →

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