ArticleJCO oncology practice2026
Changes in Cost of Guideline-Concordant Cancer Treatment: Observations and Implications.
Article in JCO oncology practice, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Quality, Cost, and Timeliness of Cancer Treatment in Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare.JAMA internal medicine · 2026Article
- Accuracy of Budget Impact Projections in Bulgarian Health Technology Assessment: A Five-Year Validation Study (2020-2025).Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeCost of cancer care in the United States is substantial. Previous studies have explored pricing comparisons at the level of individual cancer drugs but not that of clinical indications. This study evaluates cost patterns for providing the best guideline-concordant therapy for solid tumor treatment indications.
methodsWe identified all National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline-concordant treatment indications for the 17 most common solid tumor malignancies in 2017 and 2021. Best-available treatments were determined for each indication using National Comprehensive Cancer Network Evidence Block scores. We grouped treatments by (1) those administered on an ongoing basis (priced per month) and (2) those administered for a prespecified duration (priced per course of therapy). Costs were calculated using Medicare reimbursement rates and analyzed across both time points.
resultsAcross all indications, median cost of the best-available cancer treatment changed from $10,784 in US dollars (USD) (IQR, $691-$16,489 [USD]) in 2017 to $17,936 (USD) (IQR, $2,640-$19,209 [USD]) in 2021 for regimens administered on an ongoing basis, and from $10,501 (USD) (IQR, $6,068-$51,365 [USD]) in 2017 to $9,038 (USD) (IQR, $5,045-$79,386 [USD]) in 2021 for regimens administered for a set duration. Among the subset of indications newly present in 2021, median costs were higher at $21,524 (USD) (IQR, $5,639-$22,369 [USD]) per month for ongoing regimens and $17,005 (USD) (IQR, $6,178-$258,284 [USD]) per course for prespecified regimens. Among the subset of indications present in both 2017 and 2021, relative change in cost of the best-available treatment was -2% (IQR, -39% to +9%). Indications for which the best-available treatment had a new generic or biosimilar entrant (N = 16), median cost decrease was substantially larger at -57% (IQR, -78% to -44%).
conclusionThis study observed an increase in absolute median cost of cancer therapy on a treatment indications level, largely driven by new biomarker-driven indications and therapies.
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