INTERVIEW
In France, the cost of the fight against cancer has gone from 20 billion euros in 2004 to 28 billion in 2017. "At some point we will find ourselves facing an economic precipice." Former president of the National Cancer Institute, behind the 2003 cancer plan, David Khayat sees this state of affairs as the consequence of several factors, including the increase in the number of cases.
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This is indeed a trend on a global scale, and particularly marked in France: in 2000 in France, there were 280,000 new cases every year against almost 400,000 in 2019. In addition, a certain number of patients now live longer for a long time with the disease, thanks to the overall improvement in their management.
The mode of treatment has also changed a lot. Whereas it was previously essentially centered on chemistry, the search for drugs is today based on bio-technologies, with a more personalized treatment. The cost of treatment is increased, with drugs "ten, twenty or a hundred times more expensive", according to David Khayat.
Better treated patients but an exploding cost
Patients are therefore better treated and live better with the disease, but "the problem is to think about the future," says the oncologist. "With such a rapid increase in spending on cancer care, it is clear that we will not be able to continue like this for very long."
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Faced with this observation, David Khayat poses the question of the accessibility of treatments: "Are we going to have treatment for everyone, or are we moving towards two-tier medicine?", He asked. clarifying that the latter possibility was not desirable.