Cancer drug payment transparency
Pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers disclose every payment they make to U.S. physicians, under a federal law called the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. CancerDrs surfaces that disclosure for the oncologists in our index — cross-referenced with the specific drugs and clinical trials their patients are most likely to be offered.
Why this exists
ProPublica's Dollars for Docs, the most recognized consumer-facing view of this data, stopped updating in October 2019. CMS runs the authoritative database but the UI is built for researchers, not patients. We set out to answer three questions a cancer patient actually asks:
- For the drugs my oncologist is likely to recommend, has the maker paid my oncologist?
- For a trial I'm being offered, has the company running it paid the principal investigator?
- How does that compare to other oncologists treating the same cancer?
These questions are not accusations. Most payments are small, many are for legitimate research, and disclosure is the federal standard for managing conflict — not a finding of one. We publish the numbers neutrally so you can ask your care team informed questions.
Browse by cancer type
We focus on cancers where close-substitute branded drugs compete — meaning the choice among similar therapies is where drug-maker promotion has the most room to influence decisions.
Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is treated with combinations of drugs from multiple classes, and regimens shift substantially every few years as new agents gain approval. Three-drug versus four-drug induction regimens, maintenance duration, and choice among anti-CD38 antibodies and BCMA-targeted therapies are all active areas of clinical debate where close-substitute options exist.
Breast Cancer (HR+/HER2-)
For hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer, the CDK4/6 inhibitor class has three close substitutes with overlapping indications. In the adjuvant setting, only abemaciclib is currently FDA-approved in the U.S. for high-risk early breast cancer — but in metastatic disease all three are options, with real differences in tolerability, dosing schedules, and clinical-trial performance.
Lung Cancer (NSCLC, driver-mutation)
Non-small cell lung cancer treatment is heavily stratified by driver mutation. For EGFR-mutant disease, first-line osimertinib is now standard but older-generation TKIs remain relevant. ALK-rearranged NSCLC has multiple first-line TKI options where head-to-head evidence is limited. Across settings, immunotherapy combinations involve multiple closely related checkpoint inhibitors.
Prostate Cancer (advanced/mCRPC)
Advanced prostate cancer therapy involves choosing among four next-generation androgen-receptor pathway inhibitors with overlapping indications across mHSPC, nmCRPC, and mCRPC settings. The sequencing of these agents with PARP inhibitors (for BRCA/HRR-mutant patients) and radioligand therapy is an area of active clinical debate and substantial promotional spend.
Leukemia (CLL / AML)
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment has four FDA-approved covalent BTK inhibitors plus a non-covalent option, all with first-line indications. Head-to-head trials exist but they do not cover every clinical scenario. In acute myeloid leukemia, FLT3 and IDH1/IDH2 mutation-directed therapies each have multiple approved options.
Methodology and data sources
- Primary source: CMS Open Payments — the federal database mandated by the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (42 U.S.C. §1320a-7h). Public domain federal data.
- Program years included: 2023, 2024. CMS publishes each program year's data by June 30 of the following year.
- Physician identity is matched directly on NPI — no fuzzy name matching is used.
- Trial ↔ payment cross-reference uses the
ClinicalTrials_Gov_Identifierfield present in CMS research-payment records. - Disputed and delayed-publication records are flagged when present.
- Full methodology: how we compute these figures.
Are you an oncologist who thinks a figure is wrong? CMS runs the correction process, not us. File a dispute through CMS (the manufacturer submits the correction, CMS republishes). Our data refresh will pick up corrections on the next CMS publication cycle.
Medical disclaimer: This page aggregates public data. It is not medical advice and is not a quality ranking of any physician. Consult your licensed care team before making treatment decisions.
Source: openpaymentsdata.cms.gov · Data fetched: 2026-04-21 · Legal basis: 17 U.S.C. §105 (federal works, public domain)