As cancer treatment advances, patients and doctors push back against drugs’ harsh side effects

By CARLA K. JOHNSON
AP Medical Writer

Cancer patients and doctors have ignited a movement to radically change how new cancer drugs are tested to make them more tolerable. Harsh side effects from powerful cancer drugs have long been accepted as a trade-off for living longer. Now, patients and doctors are questioning whether all that suffering is necessary. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is pushing drugmakers to do a better job at finding the lowest effective dose, even if it takes more time. One group is planning a study to test whether lower doses of two new drugs will work for breast cancer that has spread.