Once promising breast cancer drug could get FDA boot

Once promising breast cancer drug could get FDA boot: "One factor clouding the debate over Avastin is money. On average, a year's worth of treatment costs about $96,000. Standard chemotherapy for breast cancer patients costs about $12,000 per year.

'I think that was obviously the elephant in the room,' said Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi, one of the experts brought in to testify at the FDA advisory committee meeting in July. He is chairman of the department of breast medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 'The FDA is not allowed to address that …', but that was clearly in the background of everyone's mind.'

The high cost of Avastin and the drug's modest clinical trial results raise a difficult question: How expensive is too expensive for treatments that offer little added benefit over existing therapy?

Hortobagyi contended that less-than-miraculous results are difficult for the FDA to justify when insurance companies pay exorbitant prices.

'I wonder if the outcome would have been the same if the drug cost $100 a month instead of $100,000 a year,' Hortobagyi said.

If the FDA removes metastatic breast cancer treatment this month from Avastin's list of approved uses, doctors will still be allowed to prescribe the drug 'off label' to breast cancer patients as they see fit.

But in that case, insurance companies might not provide reimbursement for the treatment. Few people would be able to pay out of pocket.