Opinion: Medicare’s ‘new technology’ payment plan doesn’t go far enough
It’s a story that’s sadly too familiar to clinicians like me: A middle-aged patient at the prime of life is diagnosed with blood cancer. Despite years of treatment with chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, and a range of medications, the cancer remains and the patient prepares to say his or her goodbyes.
But over the past several years, after decades of challenging scientific work, there is new hope for such patients and their doctors due to a new type of treatment called CAR-T. It turns a patient’s immune cells into a personalized, living drug that recognizes and attacks tumor cells, keeping cancer at bay for months or years. For some, it may even be a cure.
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