Some patients with advanced cancer receive drugs that won’t help them but could cause them harm, a U.S. study suggests. University of Chicago researchers analyzed medical and pharmaceutical claims from 1,041 patients with metastatic colon cancer who were treated between January 2007 and June 2010. Of those patients, about one in eight received chemotherapy treatments that weren’t supported by evidence from clinical trials or by clinical practice guidelines. The researchers focused on three specific treatments. One had insufficient data to support its use, one had been shown to be ineffective, and one was not supported by data or a compelling rationale, according to the study.
