Cost-Effectiveness of Treating Advanced Melanoma
Source: Dermatology Times, December 2022
Authors of an economic evaluation of patients with advanced melanoma have concluded that response-adapted discontinuation of ipilimumab after 6 weeks is cost-effective and may lower the patient’s financial burden. Cost savings were estimated at $19,891 per patient compared with standard of care, according to findings from the study published in JAMA Dermatology.
“Idealistically, response-adapted treatment fits well into the notion of personalized medicine, with drug regimen and dosage dictated by the individual patient’s early response,” said principal investigator Wolfgang G. Kunz, MD, MHBA, attending and professor of radiology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich in Germany. “It also leverages the multidisciplinary nature of medical care–in our case, dermatology, oncology, and radiology–by combining the most advanced features of each field.”
However, to date, it is unknown what impact potential response-adapted treatment strategies for advanced melanoma may have economically, according to Kunz.