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

Cancer patients and doctors have ignited a movement to radically change how new cancer drugs are tested to make them more tolerable

For cancer patients, the harsh side effects of powerful drugs have long been the trade-off for living longer. Now, patients and doctors are questioning whether all that suffering is necessary.

They’ve ignited a movement to radically change how new cancer drugs are tested, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging drugmakers to do a better job at finding the lowest effective dose, even if it takes more time.

Advances in treatment mean millions of people are surviving for years with incurable cancers. Jill Feldman, 54, of Deerfield, Illinois, has lived 15 years with lung cancer, thanks to that progress. Her parents both died of lung cancer months after their diagnoses.

But her cancer drug causes joint pain, fatigue and mouth sores that make eating and drinking painful.

“If you drink something that’s too hot, you really burn your mouth. That’s how my mouth feels 24/7,” Feldman said.