RESUMO
The analysis of published survival curves can be used as the basis for conducting cost-effectiveness analyses in which two treatments are compared in terms of cost per life year saved. In patients with relapsed chemosensitive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) has been reported to improve survival in comparison with control patients who receive standard chemotherapy. An incremental cost-effectiveness analysis was undertaken in which the Gompertz model was used to determine a lifetime estimate of patient-years gained by subjects given ABMT in comparison with controls. Our study utilised the cost data calculated by Uyl-de Groot et al and the clinical data reported by Philip et al. This latter randomised clinical trial involved 55 patients subjected to ABMT and 54 controls given chemotherapy. Lifetime survival advantage for patients of the ABMT group was estimated as 3606 discounted patient-months every 100 patients. The use of ABMT as opposed to standard chemotherapy was found to imply an incremental cost of $9,229 per discounted life year gained (95% CI of $5,390 to $24,012). The cost-effectiveness ratio of ABMT in patients with relapsed chemosensitive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is noticeably favourable.
Assuntos
Transplante de Medula Óssea/economia , Linfoma não Hodgkin/economia , Custos e Análise de Custo , Estudos de Avaliação como Assunto , Humanos , Linfoma não Hodgkin/patologia , Linfoma não Hodgkin/terapia , Ensaios Clínicos Controlados Aleatórios como Assunto , RecidivaRESUMO
Recent studies have shown that the analysis of published survival curves allows cost-effectiveness evaluations in which two treatments are compared with each other in terms of cost per life-year saved. In patients with colorectal cancer, the administration of adjuvant intraportal chemotherapy (with mitomycin and fluorouracil) has been reported to improve long-term survival in comparison with patients who are not given this treatment. To assess the pharmacoceconomic profile of this adjuvant chemotherapy, we carried out an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis in which we used the Gompertz model to estimate lifetime patient years gained by patients given this chemotherapy in comparison with controls. Using the data of a published controlled long-term trial involving 252 patients treated with intraportal chemotherapy and 253 controls who were given no such therapy, we estimated that the adjuvant treatment improved life expectancy by 89 discounted patient years (or 218 undiscounted patient years) every 100 patients. Cost of chemotherapy was calculated as $107,720 for every 100 patients. On the basis of these data, the administration of adjuvant intraportal chemotherapy was found to imply an incremental cost of $1,210 per discounted life-year saved or $494 per undiscounted life-year saved. The cost-effectiveness ratio of adjuvant intraportal chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer seems to be particularly favorable in comparison with estimates of cost per life-year saved previously obtained in many other areas of pharmacological intervention. Even though systemic fluorouracil + levamisole is the form of adjuvant chemotherapy most widely used in these patients, intraportal chemotherapy has the best cost-effectiveness profile.
