Categories | Health & Medicine Article

Will Decreasing Cancer Med Dosages Make A Difference?

June 13th, 2017 • Health & Medicine • 2 minute read
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Author Sara E. Teller

Will Decreasing Cancer Med Dosages Make A Difference?

A group of prominent cancer doctors may shake up the pharmaceutical industry in a big way.  They are using clinical trials to demonstrate their belief that many oncology medications could be taken at lower doses or for shorter periods without making and difference with regard to their effectiveness.  This means that cancer patients could see the same results ingesting less medication.  And, it also means that pharmaceutical companies will not be able to push drugs at the same levels they currently are.

Will Decreasing Cancer Med Dosages Make A Difference?Image Courtesy of Natural News

The idea was pitched to dozens of colleagues at ASCO's annual conference in Chicago. Now the doctors just need to raise money to support their cause, which is estimated to be around $3 million to $5 million, and they’ll  need to establish a network of medical centers willing to run the trials.  In the initial study with Zytiga the doctors randomly enrolled 72 prostate-cancer patients, with half taking the recommended standard dose of 1,000 milligrams on an empty stomach and the other half taking 250 milligrams with a low-fat breakfast.  Despite the notable difference in each dose, there was no difference in the drug's activity.  The effectiveness was measured by prostate-specific-antigen levels in each group. The length of time before the disease worsened was the same for both groups as well -- just over a year. Drug manufacturers have already fired back. “Use of food as a way to increase bio-availability in patients with cancer could present problems and risks,” the drug's manufacturer, Janssen, stated. “Given the variation in the content and composition of meals, the recommendation is to take Zytiga exactly as described in the prescribing information.”  However, the pharmaceutical companies, understandably, have a vested interest in pushing the products they produce, and some doctors also dislike the idea of changing the way drugs are administered for cost reasons. Whether or not the use of food will help or hinder treatment is yet to be definitively determined.

Sources:

Cancer drug prices are so high that doctors will test cutting dosesFood Effect Study of Abiraterone Acetate for Treatment of Patients With Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Sara E. Teller

About Sara E. Teller

Sara is a credited freelance writer, editor, contributor, and essayist, as well as a novelist and poet with nearly twenty years of experience. A seasoned publishing professional, she's worked for newspapers, magazines and book publishers in content digitization, editorial, acquisitions and intellectual property. Sara has been an invited speaker at a Careers in Publishing & Authorship event at Michigan State University and a Reading and Writing Instructor at Sylvan Learning Center. She has an MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, graduating with a 4.2/4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Chi Sigma Iota and a 2020 recipient of the Donald D. Davis scholarship recognizing social responsibility. Sara is certified in children's book writing, HTML coding and social media marketing. Her fifth book, PTSD: Healing from the Inside Out, was released in September 2019 and is available on Amazon. You can find her others books there, too, including Narcissistic Abuse: A Survival Guide, released in December 2017.

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