Scott Gottlieb wonders whether her treatment would have been as aggressive:

While recent trends in cancer survival cannot be ascribed to the new drugs alone, it is undeniable that more effective, less toxic medicines are having real impact.

Yet these improvements are not being realized around the world. Europe should be sharing in the progress against cancer, but large bureaucracies have been erected to contain costs, by slowing the introduction of new drugs and restricting how doctors can use them.

Unfortunately, some people want to import the European model here into the U.S. — and in some cases it has already arrived. One current bill on “sole-source” or very unique drugs would make Medicare more like Europe, tying access to decisions on pricing.