Carla Johnson: Cancer patients and doctors have ignited a movement to radically change how new cancer drugs are tested to make them more tolerable

Carla Johnson, Journalist and Medical Writer at the Associated Press, shared on X/Twitter:

“Cancer patients and doctors have ignited a movement to radically change how new cancer drugs are tested to make them more tolerable.
My story for the Associated Press.

Next week (Feb. 15 and 16) U.S. FDA and the American Association for Cancer Research are holding a public workshop to discuss dosage optimization in cancer drugs. Info here.

The “more is better” philosophy works for chemotherapy, but not necessarily for newer cancer drugs, which are more targeted and work differently.

Many of the new cancers drugs were developed using the old strategy of finding the ‘maximum tolerated dose’. That can lead to problems when patients skip doses or stop taking the drugs because of harsh side effects.

Thank you to all the patients, doctors and researchers who spoke to me for this article.”

Source: Carla Johnson/X