Over half of new cancer drugs 'show no benefits' for survival or wellbeing

Body cells in a plate for laboratory drug testing. The researchers said that in only 10% of uses the drugs improved quality of life. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Most cancer drugs that have recently arrived on the market have come with little evidence that they boost the survival or wellbeing of patients, research reveals.

Forty-eight cancer drugs were approved by the European Medicines Agency between 2009 and 2013 for use as treatments in 68 different situations.

But the study, which looked at the clinical trials associated with the drugs, reveals that at the time the therapies became available there was no conclusive evidence that they improved survival in almost two-thirds of the situations for which they were approved.

In only 10% of the uses did the drugs improve quality of life. Overall 57% of uses showed no benefits for either survival or quality of life.

The team then looked to see whether the picture improved over time.

Huseyin Naci, assistant professor of health policy at the London School of Economics, and a co-author of the study, published in the British Medical Journal, said: “We wanted to see once [the drugs] were already on the market did they actually generate some evidence to show that they improved or extended life?”

The team found that after a follow-up period of between three to eight years, 49% of approved uses were linked to no clear sign of improvement in survival or quality of life. Where survival benefits were shown, the team said these were clinically meaningless in almost half of the cases.

“What we find very surprising is that not very many studies are looking at overall survival or quality of life as their [primary] objective,” said Naci. He said that instead most of the studies examined indirect measures, such as x-rays or laboratory tests that were assumed to offer clues as to a drug’s survival benefits.

He added: “Unfortunately the expectation is that once the drugs are on the market then companies will be investing in [longer term] trials to then demonstrate overall survival benefits. But unfortunately these trials are not necessarily taken up and conducted.”

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