[Editorial] Minimalism in oncology

Expenses related to cancer treatment can diminish patients' quality of life and impede delivery of high-quality care. Thus, it is worrying that, in 2017, a study showed the price of some common cancer drugs in the USA rose at a rate higher than inflation. The US senate has recently started investigating why a 40-year-old cancer drug—lomustine, which has no generic competition—has increased in price by 1400% since 2013. At the 23rd Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (Orlando, FL, USA, March 22–24, 2018), oncologists had a heated debate about the congressional mandate that prohibits the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies in the USA.

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