Need for supportive care in oncology will increase during the next decade

Chemotherapy will remain the backbone of cancer therapy for the foreseeable future

The need for effective supportive care in oncology will increase in the next decade as patients continue to live longer and cancer progresses to become more like a chronic disease. This includes the need for chemotherapy-related conditions, as chemotherapy will remain the backbone of cancer therapy for the foreseeable future, observes GlobalData.

The company’s latest report: ‘PharmaFocus: Supportive Care in Oncology’ states that while there are blockbuster treatments in the areas of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN), chemotherapy-induced anemia (CIA), and bone metastases, other areas of supportive care in oncology are not as strong. The chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) features a wide array of treatment options but no blockbusters, while oral mucositis has a much smaller treatment portfolio and cancer cachexia currently has no approved treatments.

Supportive care increases patient quality of life, improves their chances of completing treatment, can reduce costs for healthcare institutions, and is fundamentally necessary given that patients are now living longer and cancer is becoming more like a chronic disease.

While the level of need varies greatly between them, unmet needs still remain in each indication. The greatest level of unmet need is present in cancer cachexia – an indication for which there are no products approved by the FDA, European Medicines Agency, or Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Thus, the main, over-arching unmet need in this indication is simply for any therapy to treat it.