NCCS Responds to Draft ASCO Conceptual Framework to Assess the Value of Cancer Treatment Options
NCCS recently submitted comments to the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on its proposed value framework. In June, ASCO published a draft of the framework, “A Conceptual Framework to Assess the Value of Cancer Treatment Options,” in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and solicited feedback from stakeholders. ASCO described the framework as “the basis for user-friendly, standardized tools that doctors can use with their patients to discuss the relative value of new cancer therapies compared with established treatments.”
In our letter, we commended ASCO for focusing on the value of cancer care options as well as the cost of cancer care, both of which are difficult topics for analysis and discussion. Our comments focused on the net health benefit calculation, the cost of care, treatment toxicity, and treatment planning in an age of personalized medicine. In our comments, we posed questions for discussion, raised concerns about aspects the framework, made suggestions for future versions, and pledged to work with ASCO and other stakeholders on policy efforts related to the cost of care.
Additionally, NCCS joined with other patient advocacy organizations in a group letter that posed questions about how the framework would be used to advance and improve treatment planning for cancer survivors.
Read our comments below or download the PDF.
