DRUGS
Making the grade On 30 May, the European Society for Medical Oncology, headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland, announced the Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS), the first standard scale that can help doctors evaluate the clinical benefit of cancer drugs in patients (Ann. Oncol., 10.1093/annonc/mdv249, 2015). The ESMO-MCBS determines the magnitude of clinical benefit of a drug, thereby enabling experts to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the therapy. “Without the capacity to make decisions about the relative value of these new treatments, the cost of care is becoming increasingly unsustainable,” says Elisabeth G.E. de Vries, co-chair of the ESMO-MCBS task force. The therapies receive a grade on the basis of how well they work in patients. Those drugs that have a curative intent are graded alphabetically (A, B or C), whereas those that help manage cancer without a curative intent are rated numerically (1–5). “The [scale] will hopefully be rapidly endorsed by health authorities across the European Union,” de Vries says.
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