Cancer experts have concluded that countries in the developed world are overprescribing very expensive drugs that produce marginal benefit.
However the UK is not participating in this trend and has fallen behind European neighbours in the practice.
The Lancet Oncology Commission made the conclusions having studied cancer treatment and its price.
In the latest issue of the magazine the Commission said: "The burden of cancer is growing rapidly, and the disease is becoming a major challenge for all developed countries.
"This is not simply due to an increase in absolute numbers or need for optimised treatments, rather it relates to the unsustainable rate of increase in expenditure on cancer within health-care systems."
Dr Karol Sikora, one of the members of the Commission, explained the problems affecting health services but noted that the UK was not a serious offender.
"We are well behind our neighbours in western Europe in the use of modern drugs," he said.
"The real problem is the sheer onslaught of modern drugs. Over the last five years there's been 700 in clinical trial, which is great news, but we don't know how to use them properly.
"The problem now is, over the last six months, eight new drugs have come to market with an average price of £9,000 a month.
"This is not a tenable way to move forward in any healthcare system in the world," he added.
Regarding the limiting of drugs and treatments to certain populations, Dr Sikora told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that patients needed to be targeted more accurately and that everyone had their own biological age.
"It's the benefits of the molecular revolution, that's what has lead to a huge excess of new drugs which is good news, but we've but to look at the finances more closely," he added.
Professor Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, responded to Dr Sikora by accepting that it was not possible to thousands of pounds to prolong people's lives by just days or weeks.
"Yes, the costs of cancer treatment are rising but it's very important to remember that so is the chance of surviving cancer," he added.
"We've made fantastic progress in the last 30 years and survival rates from cancer have doubled over that time, and there's no sign of this slowing down.
"It's very important to remember that the expensive treatment for an advanced cancer today may be highly effective when you use it at an earlier stage of the disease."
Prof Johnson also agreed with Dr Sikora that treatments could be better targeted and patients more accurately diagnosed to increase affordability by not wasting drugs.
