Professor Charlie Swanton of UCL has stated that the 71 cancer drugs approved by US regulators in the 12 years to 2016 have generated an average increased survival of just 2.1 months of extra life, representing a cost per drug average of $10,000 per month.
Professor Swanton, who is also a scientist at the Francis Crick Institute in London confirms this in a You Tube video and in comments on a UCL report into immunotherapy improvements.
Seeking to understand why new immunotherapy drugs work fully only on a low percentage of people, UCL researchers are looking into why cancers constantly ‘mutate’ and trying to develop immunotherapy drugs that will heighten T-cells that can hit all the forms of the cancer rather that just a subset. The scientists explained that it was rather like chasing a gang of criminals involved in organized crime on many fronts, from money laundering to child-trafficking. The only real way to stop the problem was to find the heads of the organization and attack those.
The report suggests that these new immunotherapy solutions may have a much larger up-front cost, but will be better value for money because they will extend survival time much more.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founder of CANCERactive said, “With cancer, so many times the same thing happens. Here we are told for years by the likes of Cancer Research and Big Pharma just how wonderful all the new drugs are and how they are a ‘breakthrough’ or a ‘wonder drug’ increasing survival significantly, and then someone explaining their new research programme shoots the claims to pieces with hard evidence! The Truth is that the average patient would probably get a longer survival time if they followed an anti-cancer diet and exercise programme, rather than take a new ‘wonder drug’.”
Go to: CANCERactive Guidelines on Diet and exercise for Cancer Patients