Medicare Considers Curbs on Payment for Cancer Drugs - Federal Medicare officials are close to deciding whether to refuse to pay for unapproved uses of expensive cancer drugs. [New York Times Healthcare News] Once the FDA approves a drug for a certain use, doctors can prescribe the drug for other uses, without any evidence that the treatment is effective. This is a big problem in cancer treatment, where patients and their families are often desperate to find a cure. They have the idea that anything is better than doing nothing, no matter the cost (especially if they are not the ones paying for the treatment). In fact, the side-effects of cancer drugs can be far worse than doing nothing, especially given that the drug may not be at all effective. Last year, New York Times Magazine covered a story about Robert Courtney, a pharmacist found guilty of diluting cancer medications. One reason it was so hard to identify was that the treatments are not very effective even when they are not diluted. Sometimes, less expensive drugs may be just as effective as more expensive drugs, like Bexxar and Zevalin which cost $22,210 for a single dose. Medicare may require that the less expensive drugs be tried first, before resorting to these high-cost drugs.