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Cost‐effectiveness analysis of cisplatin‐based chemoradiation to treat patients with unresectable, nonmetastatic head and neck cancer in Brazil
Author(s) -
Brentani Alexandra,
de Castro Gilberto,
Federico Miriam H.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.21601
Subject(s) - medicine , cisplatin , head and neck cancer , reimbursement , radiation therapy , cost effectiveness analysis , cost effectiveness , oncology , chemoradiotherapy , cancer , chemotherapy , surgery , health care , risk analysis (engineering) , economics , economic growth
Background. The purpose of this study was to analyze the cost‐effectiveness of cisplatin‐based chemoradiation compared to radiation therapy (RT) alone to treat patients with advanced head and neck cancer in Brazil. Methods. Data were collected retrospectively from the medical records of 33 patients treated with RT alone (strategy 1) and from 29 patients treated with cisplatin‐based chemoradiation (strategy 2). The Brazilian National Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde [SUS]) reimbursement parameters perspective was considered, and the effectiveness was measured in years of disease‐free life gained. One‐way sensitivity analysis was performed to determine robustness of this study. Results. In strategy 1, there were 31% of the patients who lived without disease progression for more than 13 months after treatment, compared to 58% of patients in strategy 2. According to SUS parameters, the total cost per patient in strategy 1 was $1167.00 U.S. dollars and in strategy 2, it was $2058.00 U.S. dollars. Incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER) was $3303.00 U.S. dollars per life‐year gained. Conclusion. Cisplatin‐based chemoradiation proved to be more cost‐effective than RT alone. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2011