Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Tumor Treating Fields Therapy Combined With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor in Metastatic Non-small-cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

BackgroundThe LUNAR clinical trial revealed that incorporating Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy alongside immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) significantly prolonged the overall survival of patients with metastatic, platinum-resistant non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the cost of TTFields therapy is high and may further increase the financial burden for patients. Our research aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of TTFields therapy addition with ICI for metastatic NSCLC. MethodsWe constructed a Markov model to evaluate the healthcare costs associated with TTFields therapy combined with ICI for the treatment of advanced NSCLC. In this model, the clinical data utilized came from the LUNAR trial, while drug costs and health state utility values were extracted from public databases and relevant scholarly publications. The major outcomes incorporated costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). ResultsCompared with ICI therapy alone, ICI combination with TTFields therapy resulted in 0.42 QALYs at the cost of $167,329, with an ICER of $398,402.38 per year. The calculated ICER surpassed the generally accepted US willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of 150,000 per QALY. One-way sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the utility of progression disease is the most influential factor, followed by the cost of TTFields therapy, the utility of progression-free survival, the cost of ICI, and the cost of adverse events in TTFields therapy combined with ICI. Only when the cost of TTFields therapy is reduced by approximately 80.48%, it would be cost-effective within the commonly accepted WTP threshold of $150,000/QALY. ConclusionsAccording to the US WTP, the combination of TTFields therapy with ICI does not currently represent a cost-effective strategy for metastatic NSCLC followed progression on platinum-resistant therapy. Considering its promising clinical outcomes for metastatic NSCLC, it is necessary to control the expenses of this therapeutic strategy in future applications.