Abstract
ObjectiveWe wanted to examine the incremental cost-effective ratio (ICER) for a variety of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved oncology drugs in the adjuvant or curative setting to determine the value provided.DesignWe examined the annualized incremental drug costs of a variety of FDA approved chemotherapeutic drugs used in an adjuvant or curative setting based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) category 1 practice guidelines for melanoma, Her2/neu over-expressive breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer, myeloma, B cell lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma. The studies we examined were randomized clinical trials on which the NCCN guidelines are based; we solely examined the incremental cost-effectiveness of the trial drug as we assumed that the costs of the health care provided were equivalent between the two treatment arms. We used a formula to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The ICER compares a new intervention (C new) with its alternate (C alt) divided by the quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) that results from the new intervention (QALY new) versus the alternate (QALY alt) and is expressed as ICER = (C new-C alt)/(QALY new-QALY alt). The QALY’s were derived from what was reported in the study and based on the incremental disease-free survival.ResultsDrugs such as rituximab provide high value in the curative therapy for lymphoma. Drugs such as adjuvant dabrafenib and trametinib provide intermediate value in the treatment of melanoma, and similarly with maintenance lenalidomide in myeloma and adjuvant trastuzumab in breast cancer. Oncologic drugs that provide low value include adjuvant ipilimumab in melanoma, adjuvant sunitinib in renal cell carcinoma, adjuvant neratinib in breast cancer, adjuvant durvalumab in lung cancer, and brentuximab in the curative therapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.ConclusionThe ICER needs to be evaluated for newly approved FDA oncology chemotherapeutic drugs before incorporating them into routine clinical practice.
Highlights
The word 'value' is bantered about in healthcare; definitions of value are often nebulous at best
We examined the annualized incremental drug costs of a variety of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved chemotherapeutic drugs used in an adjuvant or curative setting based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) category 1 practice guidelines for melanoma, Her2/neu over-expressive breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer, myeloma, B cell lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma
The studies we examined were randomized clinical trials on which the NCCN guidelines are based; we solely examined the incremental cost-effectiveness of the trial drug as we assumed that the costs of the health care provided were equivalent between the two treatment arms
Summary
The word 'value' is bantered about in healthcare; definitions of value are often nebulous at best. Porter [1] defines value in healthcare as outcomes achieved per dollars spent. Newmann et al [2} promote using cost-effective analysis (CEA) as a means of defining the value of public health interventions. They define cost-effectiveness thresholds such as $50,000 to $100,000 per quality-adjusted lifeyears (QALY). The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a cost-effectiveness threshold based on a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). They suggest a benchmark of three times the GDP per capita as the upper threshold for an acceptable level of cost-effectiveness [3].
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