Big Take Many Cancer Drugs Don’t Extend Life
Dec 17, 2025
Robert Langreth, a senior healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry, dives into the complexities of the $200 billion cancer treatment market. He reveals that fewer than half of cancer drugs truly extend patient lives, despite high costs and painful side effects. Langreth discusses the pitfalls of relying on progression-free survival, the economic incentives driving the industry, and the need for patients to prioritize treatments that promise real survival benefits over questionable profits.
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Family Struggles With Costly Cancer Care
- Stacey Dusetzina describes navigating her mother's advanced breast cancer and facing an unaffordable recommended drug.
- Her mother did not take Ibrance and later died after intolerable side effects from another treatment.
Huge Market, Limited Survival Evidence
- The global cancer drug market exceeded $200 billion in 2024 while fewer than half of drugs approved since 2000 show survival benefit.
- Prices and launch costs have surged independently of whether drugs extend patients' lives.
Progression-Free Survival Warps Approval
- FDA expedited pathways and use of progression-free survival (PFS) lowered approval hurdles for cancer drugs.
- PFS often delays detectable tumor growth for months but does not reliably predict longer overall survival.