First-Line Bevacizumab for Glioblastoma Not Likely To Be Cost-Effective

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Bevacizumab has only limited effectiveness and is therefore not likely to be cost effective in treating adult patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme, a new study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown.

For the cost-effectiveness analysis, researchers from St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, developed a Markov model to estimate the incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) of first-line bevacizumab in newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme from a Canadian public payer perspective.

Results of the analysis showed that over a 2-year time horizon, the addition of bevacizumab to radiotherapy and temozolomide resulted in an increase of 0.13 QALYs and $80,000 per patient, corresponding to an ICUR of $607,966/QALY (95% CI: $305,000/QALY to $2,550,000/QALY). The researchers found that at the $100,000/QALY willingness-to-pay threshold, bevacizumab had a 0% chance of being cost-effective.

The researchers note that second-line treatment with bevacizumab is more effective on progression and less expensive than first-line bevacizumab. The findings suggest that further research is unnecessary.