Fresh warning issued over breast cancer chemotherapy
Scientists believe chemotherapy side-effects have been underestimated
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Wednesday, 16, Aug 2006 08:19
Scientists have indicated that the side-effects of chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer patients may be more costly and severe than previously thought.
Published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, statistical research by the Boston-based Dana-Farber cancer institute found that women aged under 63 years old receiving chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer in the US incur higher medical costs and are more frequently required to return to hospital.
Although the adverse side-effects of chemotherapy are well documented, the cancer institute believes that clinical trials are not presenting the full extent of the treatment's drawbacks.
It says that drug-related side effects cause almost seven per cent of all hospital admissions in the US and about 100,000 deaths annually.
Researchers studied more than 12,000 individual medical claim records made through employer-sponsored health insurance programmes, with about 7,000 women found to be suffering from breast cancer.
Of these 7,000, about half were treated with chemotherapy and half were not, but the former group was "significantly" more likely to be re-admitted to hospital during any given year, with medical bills also comparatively higher.
The Dana-Farber team said: "Our results suggest that breast cancer chemotherapy may cause more patient suffering and higher health care costs than previously estimated. Health care providers must carefully decide whether trial results can be applied to routine clinical practice."
Commenting on the results of today's study, John Erban and Joseph Lau of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, write: "As new drugs of increasing efficacy and few acute toxicities emerge, the tendency will be to push them to market, and there will be few incentives for longer term toxicity studies. Without careful long term tracking of late adverse effects, there is a risk that very important toxicity events will occur unnoticed."