Analysis Group Authors Contribute to Policy Paper on Improving Early-Stage Cancer Care
June 3, 2026
A central policy challenge in early-stage cancer care is how to evaluate and provide timely access to therapies while evidence is still evolving. Early detection and treatment can improve the likelihood of successful treatment and survival, underscoring the need for timely evidence on therapies in early-stage settings. In this context, early clinical endpoints – including event-free survival, disease-free survival, invasive disease-free survival, and recurrence-free survival – can provide earlier evidence on treatment effectiveness, which can then inform regulatory, reimbursement, and clinical decisions.
In the Journal of Medical Economics, Analysis Group Vice Presidents Debbie Goldschmidt and Jenny Zhou, together with academic affiliate Lou Garrison, of the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, contributed to a policy paper that examines challenges in early-stage cancer diagnosis, treatment, and access. While early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve patient outcomes, rates of early-stage detection continue to vary across tumor types and patient populations. The paper emphasizes that assessing treatment value in early-stage cancer can require considering a range of evidence, including early clinical endpoints that capture meaningful outcomes for patients such as whether treatment helps them remain disease-, event-, or recurrence-free.
Drawing on clinical and economic evidence, the authors explain that evidence-generation and value-assessment challenges in early-stage cancer care should not become a barrier to timely access. Instead, they highlight the importance of incorporating early clinical endpoints alongside other clinical, economic, and access considerations into evidence generation, value assessment, and reimbursement discussions, particularly when those measures reflect outcomes that matter to patients and can offer timely insights into whether innovative therapies reduce recurrence risk.
A key recommendation from the authors is the integration of early cancer care more fully into national cancer control plans, supported by stronger data collection and monitoring, improved health literacy, and more coordinated approaches to reimbursement and value assessment. Overall, they conclude that improving early-stage cancer care will require better alignment across stakeholders to enhance diagnosis rates, reduce the burden of recurrence, and expand timely access to effective treatments as evidence continues to evolve.