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I'm a radiation oncologist specializing in lung cancer. Here's my take: Immunotherapy is really revolutionizing the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic lung cancer. However, a "revolution" in our world is improving 5-year survival by 10-15% in absolute value. It's not outstanding, but when your baseline is around 10%, improving it by 10% means doubling it. That's why immunotherapy is being adopted so quickly despite its price. A poster mentioned $100 000 is not a lot if it adds 10 years. It's not as simple. Right now we don't really know if we can stop the treatment. So people often receive the treatment until they progress. If it's 4 years, we're looking at $400k... The cost on society in general will have to be dealt with (and debated) at some point. I doubt insurance companies will continue paying for those treatments "forever", especially considering how prevalent lung cancer is. Immunotherapy benefits from a great "romantic" story, which helps with its marketing like no other drug. It's your own immune system, your army, waking up and attacking the greatest villain of all; cancer. The alternative, chemotherapy, is often seen as poison. Granted, it has fewer side effects, but it has some, and they can be nasty. Basically, the immune system is in a constant state of equilibrium. You stimulate it too much and it starts attacking your own body. We're seeing some cases of thyroid problems, lung inflammation (pneumonitis), skin problems... Generally speaking though, it's better than most chemos. Overall, it’s a great treatment but obviously not perfect, crazy expensive to a point that it’s likely not sustainable in the long run. Despite all of the drawbacks, it’s a really exciting time for oncologists as we can finally offer more hope to our lung cancer patients. |