ESMO launches clinical benefit scale for cancer therapies

The European Society for Medical Oncology has published a scale to stratify magnitude of clinical benefit of anti-cancer medicines.

The ESMO-MCBS tool aims to assist oncology clinicians in evaluating the most effective oncology therapies for their patients by stratifying a drug’s clinically meaningful benefit. It can also be used in public policy decision-making and to develop or improve clinical guidelines.

Rolf Stahel, president of ESMO, said: "As the international organization committed to the interest of the oncology community at large, we are concerned about some anti-cancer medicines approved by the European Medicines Agency not being available or affordable to patients when prescribed. With the ESMO-MCBS, we aim to signal drugs with a large magnitude of clinical benefit which should be endorsed across Europe for rapid patient access."