Essential drugs for cancer therapy: A World Health Organization consultation

The WHO has previously produced recommendations on the essential drugs requ ired for cancer therapy. Over the last five years several new anti cancer d rugs have been aggressively marketed. Most of these are costly and produce only limited benefits. We have divided currently available anti-cancer drug s into three priority groups. Curable cancers and those cancers where the c ost-benefit ratio clearly favours drug treatment can be managed appropriate ly with regimens based on only 17 drugs. All of these are available, at rel atively low cost, as generic preparations. The wide availability of these d rugs should be the first priority. The second group of drugs may have some advantages in certain clinical situations. Based on current evidence, drugs in the third group are judged as currently not essential for the effective delivery of cancer care. Adequate supportive care programmes with the wide spread availability of effective drugs for pain control are of considerably greater importance. The adoption of these priorities will help to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of chemotherapy and ensure equitable acce ss to essential drugs especially in low resource environments. Clearly this paper represents the views of its contributors. The WHO welcomes feedback from all oncologists so that the advice it gives to governments in prioriti sing the procurement of anti cancer drugs can be as comprehensive as possib le.