Megan Kruse, MD, Discusses the Use of Biosimilars in Breast Cancer Treatment

Megan Kruse, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic, discussed the use of biosimilars in breast cancer treatment at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held December 10-14, in San Antonio, Texas.

Transcription:
So, I think the world of biosimilars is going to continue to expand in the treatment of breast cancer in the upcoming few years. It’s of course enticing to have options for patients that may either have different costs or administration schedules but the same efficacy as the other drugs that we’re familiar with using, so there’s a lot of benefits in that vein.

For patients though, I think it’s a little bit challenging to talk to them about biosimilars, because a lot of them will want the drugs that were known to be effective in the very, very large studies that we quote when we talk about clinical benefit. I think the concept of biosimilars when you’re in clinic and talking with the patient is also a little bit confusing when you break it down and compare it to other medications that are used in medicine, maybe not in oncology, and how we have multiple versions of a similar drug that we think work the same, then it becomes more appealing for them. But in the short term, I think we’re figuring out how to implement these changes in our clinics and how to standardize use in large hospital systems.