Saturday, February 6, 2016

System incentives hinder Innovation and prevention against Cancer

Are we fighting cancer the right way?People Magazines | People Magazines
Are we fighting cancer the right way? - BBC News
A huge amount of effort and money is spent fighting cancer globally. But are we getting that fight right?
With the number of new cancer cases set to hit 24m by 2035, do we need to rethink our approach?
Four experts talk to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme.


Dr Vincent DeVita: Regulation stifles innovation


"The process we're going through now stifles innovation. We're doing a lot of things right. We're in the middle of a molecular revolution, but we're not taking advantage of all the information that we have because of the regulatory apparatus.

Heidi Williams: Incentives can distort available treatments

Heidi Williams is an assistant economics professor at MIT.
"If you look at drugs that get approved by the FDA, they all tend to be for very late stage cancer patients - patients that are very close to the end of their life, who live one month longer than they would have. It's very rare that we see drugs approved to treat early stage cancers or to prevent cancer.

Dr Christopher Wild: Prevention is vital


"At the moment, perhaps 40 to 50% of cancers could be prevented - if we were able to translate the knowledge we have about what causes cancer into effective interventions and reduce exposure to those risk factors.

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