Amy P. Abernethy, MD, PhD

Barriers to cost discussions fall into three categories: inaccessible cost data, ethical concerns, and insufficient training.

The development and approval of oncology therapeutics has been facilitated by the cooperation and coordination of regulatory practices between the EMA and the FDA. However, there continue to be important differences between the decisions of the two agencies.

Just as high-quality research has focused on limiting the physical toxicity resulting from successful treatment, future research should focus on mitigating the negative effects of financial toxicity without affecting disease-related outcomes.

Costs of care continue to rise; new cancer drugs are more expensive than ever before, and more patients are being treated with these drugs. While patients and claims datasets consistently report an association between financial burden and quality of care, the impact on traditional disease-related outcomes-survival, for example-have not been assessed.

As Dennis et al demonstrate, palliative care (PC) is a unique and multifaceted philosophy of care geared towards patients living with serious illness, not only those dying from it.