Oncologists Choose Between Drugs to Fight Breast Cancer

When given a choice between using a oral agent, Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor, or an intravenous therapy, Herceptin, oncologist are choosing to use the later, according to Decision Resources, a research and advisory firm for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues. Their choose seemed to be based on two factors, familiarity and profits.

According to Decision Resources, Oncologists choose to use Herceptin because it is the drug with which they are most familiar and it is the one that pays the most, according to a report entitled How Are New and Emerging Oral Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Threatening Established Anticancer Agents? written by new Physician & Payer Forum.

Of the 100 oncologists and 20 managed care pharmacy directors surveyed, 44 percent of surveyed oncologists reported that they were more likely to continue with Herceptin because they were more familiar with this drug. Ninety one percent of oncologists reported that intravenous (IV) cancer therapies were more lucrative than oral therapies. Moreover, 58 percent of oncologists reported favoring IV Herceptin because using IV drugs was an important source of income.

Another reason for choosing Herceptin over the TKIs was that oncologist believed that patients do not fully comply with the TKI regment. Oncologists "estimate that less than one-third of patients take 91-100 percent of their tablets, and as many as 34 percent of patients take less than 80 percent of their tablets."

According to the report, managed care organizations were involved in the patients' use of Tykerb by monitoring their compliance and recommending the cessation of treatment when they were not compliant. According to Marcus Hoyle, analyst at Decision Resources, oncologists were observed that managed care organizations were monitoring patients' response to TKIs. Twenty-seven percent of oncologists believed that payers sometimes monitor response to Tykerb, and of these respondents, 77% believe that the monitoring is increasing.