If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  SABCS: Xeloda (Capecitabine)-Taxotere (Docetaxel) Combination Appears Cost Effective for Metastatic Breast Cancer By Robert H. Carlson SAN ANTONIO, TX -- December 12, 2001 -- Addition of the new chemotherapy drug Xeloda (capecitabine) to Taxotere (docetaxel) appears to be economically and clinically beneficial for treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). According to a population cost-effectiveness model developed for the Province of Ontario, Canada, it is estimated that 59 more women with MBC would reach one year of survival if this combination therapy were available. The incremental cost per patient would be approximately $827 (Canadian) and about $6,000 per life-year gained, said study author Lane Ilersich, MSc, Manager of Health Outcomes and Economics, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, during a poster presentation yesterday (Dec. 11) at the 24th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, in San Antonio, Texas. If per patient cost increased from $12,833 to $13,660, implementation of this regimen would result in a total cost to the province of approximately $448,000 annually, Mr. Ilersich said. "With patient survival data and budget impact, our cost-effectiveness analysis shows this a very cost-effective therapy," he said. At present, docetaxel is approved for first-line therapy in breast cancer, but capecitabine is only approved for second-line therapy, Mr. Ilersich said. The retrospective study, led by Shailendra Verma, MD, an oncologist at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, used data from a large, randomised, phase III study of capecitabine-docetaxel in patients with MBC. That study found the adding capecitabine to docetaxel increases survival from 11.5 months to 14.5 months in women who have failed anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens (O’Shaughnessy et al. 23rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2000:Abstract 381). Using their cost model, the Ontario researchers estimated that 309 women would be alive at one year with capecitabine-docetaxel, compared to 251 with docetaxel alone, a difference of 59 patients. Cancer Care Ontario currently funds taxane monotherapy for women with MBC, the authors reported, and public/private insurance reimburses capecitabine for patients who fail taxane therapy. Treatment costs for this new study were from medical resource-use data from the earlier study, and include drug acquisition costs, infusion costs, facility costs, and professional fees. Hospitalisations and adverse effect costs were also included. Item costs were obtained from the regional cancer program and the provincial fee schedule, Mr. Ilersich said. "Given the significant survival benefit without a major impact on cost, [capecitabine-docetaxel] can be considered an economically viable treatment option for patients with anthracycline-pretreated MBC," Mr. Ilersich concluded. He noted that this study excluded women who test overexpress the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-neu gene and who are not eligible for anthracycline-based chemotherapy because they are receiving Herceptin and a taxane.
|
