Overall Survival, QOL, and Safety Benefits From New Cancer Medicines

The JAMA Network

Design, Setting, and Participants  We used a narrative synthesis approach to systematically synthesize and analyze English, French, and Australian health technology assessments (HTAs) of all new cancer medicines licensed in the United States and Europe between 2003 and 2013.
Interventions  Sixty-two new molecular entities with a primary oncology indication.

  

Key Points

 

Question  What are the overall survival, quality of life, and safety benefits of recently licensed cancer medicines?
Findings  An analysis of health technology assessment reports found that new cancer drugs were associated with increased overall survival by an average of 3.43 months between 2003 and 2013, with 43% increasing overall survival by 3 months or longer, 11% by less than 3 months and 30% were not associated with an increase in overall survival. Most new cancer drugs improved quality of life, and were associated with reduced patient safety.
Meaning  The added benefits of new cancer medicines vary widely across and within therapeutic indications and may be based on modeled data, indirect or nonactive comparisons, or nonvalidated evidence.