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Cost-Effectiveness of Truncated Therapy for Hepatitis C Based on Rapid Virologic Response
Cost-Effectiveness of Truncated Therapy for Hepatitis C Based on Rapid Virologic Response VALUE IN HEALTH Gellad, Z. F., Muir, A. J., McHutchison, J. G., Sievert, W., Sharara, A. I., Brown, K. A., Flisiak, R., Jacobson, I. M., Kershenobich, D., Manns, M. P., Schulman, K. A., Reed, S. D. 2012; 15 (6): 876–86Abstract
Shortened courses of treatment with pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin for patients with hepatitis C virus infection who experience rapid virologic response can be effective in appropriately selected patients. The cost-effectiveness of truncated therapy is not known.To assess the cost-effectiveness of response-guided therapy versus standard-duration therapy on the basis of best available evidence.We developed a decision model for chronic hepatitis C virus infection representing two treatment strategies: 1) standard-duration therapy with pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin for 48 weeks in patients with genotype 1 or 4 and for 24 weeks in patients with genotype 2 or 3 and 2) truncated therapy (i.e., 50% decrease in treatment duration) in patients with rapid virologic response. Patients for whom truncated therapy failed began standard-duration therapy guided by genotype. We used a Markov model to estimate lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years.In the base-case analysis, mean lifetime costs were $46,623 ± $2,483 with standard-duration therapy and $42,354 ± $2,489 with truncated therapy. Mean lifetime quality-adjusted life-years were similar between the groups (17.1 ± 0.7 with standard therapy; 17.2 ± 0.7 with truncated therapy). Across model simulations, the probability of truncated therapy being economically dominant (i.e., both cost saving and more effective) was 78.6%. The results were consistent when we stratified the data by genotype. In one-way sensitivity analyses, the results were sensitive only to changes in treatment efficacy.Truncated therapy based on rapid virologic response is likely to be cost saving for treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Cost-effectiveness varied with small changes in relative treatment efficacy.
View details for PubMedID 22999138