The high prices of some cancer drugs drew attention from oncologists last week.
Two National Cancer Institute researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that steep prices make it difficult or impossible to conduct randomized trials comparing the effectiveness of different therapies.
Meanwhile, an American Society of Clinical Oncologists' task force met to develop an algorithm for determining the relative value of drugs, including considering their cost. Taking the cost-benefit of therapies into consideration has long been hugely controversial in U.S. medicine and politics.