Objectives: Trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) was recently recommended by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use as a treatment for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, who had received a prior anti-HER2-based regimen. In our study, we evaluated the cost-effectiveness of T-DXd compared with ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) for this indication in Finland. Methods: A three-state partitioned survival analysis model was developed with a payer’s perspective. Time to event data from the DESTINY-Breast03 (DB-03) trial were extrapolated over a lifetime horizon either directly—for progression-free survival and time to treatment discontinuation—or using an alternative approach utilizing long-term T-DM1 survival data and DB-03 data—for overall survival. Discount rates of 3% were applied for costs and effects. Inputs were sourced from the Medicinal Products Database from Kela, Helsinki University Hospital service price list, Finnish Medicines Agency assessments, clinical experts, and DB-03. Sensitivity analyses were performed to characterize and demonstrate parameter uncertainties in the model. Results: Total quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and life years (LYs) gained for T-DXd compared with T-DM1 were 1.93 and 2.56, respectively. Incremental costs for T-DXd compared with T-DM1 were €106,800, resulting in an ICER of €55,360 per QALY gained and an ICER of €41,775 per LY gained. One-way sensitivity analysis showed the hazard ratio of T-DXd vs T-DM1 for OS was the most influential parameter. The probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed similar results to the base case. Conclusions: T-DXd is cost-effective based on surrogate WTP thresholds of €72,000 and €139,000 per QALY.

Evidence-based reassurances addressing vaccine-related concerns are crucial to promoting primary vaccination, completion of the primary series, and booster vaccination. By summarizing and comparing...

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men in the Netherlands, and its treatment is increasingly expensive. Given the limited hospital budget, it is important to consider costs in the treatment of prostate cancer. Radiopharmaceuticals are one of the multiple treatment options for metastatic prostate cancer. The current study looked at the costs of two radiopharmaceuticals, radium-223 and 177Lu-PSMA-I&T while using multiple treatment regimens. The cost of radium-223 treatment is €30,905 per patient and is fully covered by insurance. The cost of 177Lu-PSMA-I&T treatment ranges from €35,866 to €47,546 per patient and are partially paid from the budget of the hospitals considering current reimbursement amounts. The study shows that, without consideration of the treatment effects, radium-223 treatment for prostate cancer leads to lower per-patient costs than treatment with 177Lu-PSMA-I&T. The detailed overview of the costs associated with radiopharmaceutical treatment provided by this study is relevant for both hospitals and healthcare insurers to manage prostate cancer treatment costs.

Objectives. This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children through prevention of serious delinquent behavior. Cost-effectiveness was assessed in net-monetary benefit (NMB). Methods. To evaluate the three major forms of ADHD treatment (medication management, behavioral treatment, and the combination thereof) relative to community-delivered treatment (control condition), we used data from 448 children, aged 7 to 10, who participated in the National Institute of Mental Health’s Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. We developed a three-state continuous-time Markov model (no delinquency, minor to moderate delinquency, serious delinquency) to extrapolate the results 10 years beyond the 14-month trial period at a 3% discount rate. Serious delinquency was considered an absorbing state to enable assessment in life-years (LYs) of serious delinquent behavior prevented. The willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold was set equal to the annual cost associated with serious delinquency in children with ADHD of $12,370. Results. Modeled and observed outcomes matched closely with a mean difference of 6.9% in LYs of serious delinquent behavior prevented. The economic evaluation revealed a NMB of $95,449, $88,553, $90,536 and $98,660 for medication management, behavioral treatment, combined treatment, and routine community care, respectively. Estimates remained stable after linearly increasing the WTP threshold between $0 and $50,000 in the deterministic sensitivity analyses. Conclusions. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of treatments for ADHD in children using continuous-time Markov modeling. We show that treatment evaluation in broader societal outcomes is essential for policy makers, as the three major forms of ADHD treatment turned out to be inferior to the control condition.

Background: Authors in previous studies demonstrated that centralising acute stroke care is associated with an increased chance of timely Intra-Venous Thrombolysis (IVT) and lower costs compared to care at community hospitals. In this study we estimated the lower bound of the causal impact of centralising IVT on health and cost outcomes within clinical practice in the Northern Netherlands.Methods: We used observational data from 267 and 780 patients in a centralised and decentralised system, respectively. The original dataset was linked to the hospital information systems. Literature on healthcare costs and Quality of Life (QoL) values up to 3 months post-stroke was searched to complete the input. We used Synthetic Control Methods (SCM) to counter selection bias. Differences in SCM outcomes included 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). To deal with unobserved heterogeneity we focused on recently developed methods to obtain the lower bounds of the causal impact.Results: Using SCM to assess centralising acute stroke 3 months post-stroke revealed healthcare savings of $US 1735 (CI, 505 to 2966) while gaining 0.03 (CI, − 0.01 to 0.73) QoL per patient. The corresponding lower bounds of the causal impact are $US 1581 and 0.01. The dominant effect remained stable in the deterministic sensitivity analyses with $US 1360 (CI, 476 to 2244) as the most conservative estimate.Conclusions: In this study we showed that a centralised system for acute stroke care appeared both cost-saving and yielded better health outcomes. The results are highly relevant for policy makers, as this is the first study to address the issues of selection and unobserved heterogeneity in the evaluation of centralising acute stroke care, hence presenting causal estimates for budget decisions.

Introduction In 2021, breast cancer affected 75,619 women in Denmark. Approximately 50% of breast cancers are considered human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-low. The DESTINY-Breast04 (DB-04) trial led to European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) as a treatment for patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-low breast cancer who have received prior chemotherapy in the metastatic setting or developed disease recurrence during or within 6 months of completing adjuvant chemotherapy. Moreover, the Danish Breast Cancer Group guidelines recently included T-DXd as a treatment for HER2-low metastatic breast cancer. This economic evaluation aims to estimate the cost-effectiveness of T-DXd for the approved EMA indication in Denmark. Methods A three-state—progression-free, post-progression, and death—partitioned survival model was developed to estimate the cost-effectiveness of T-DXd versus treatment of physician’s choice over a lifetime horizon following the Danish Medicines Council guidelines. Clinical data were gathered from the DB-04 trial, and cost and resource use data were sourced from the literature. Sensitivity and scenario analysis were conducted to explore uncertainty. Results T-DXd led to 0.78 incremental quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and incurred DKK 621,325 in incremental costs compared to the treatment of physician’s choice. This resulted in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of DKK 795,181 per QALY gained, which falls below the willingness-to-pay threshold. Sensitivity and scenario analyses showed the robustness of the deterministic result, with T-DXd remaining cost-effective. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that T-DXd is a cost-effective treatment for patients with HER2-low unresectable or metastatic breast cancer who have received prior chemotherapy in Denmark.