Gesamttherapiekosten-Analyse für Platin-haltige neue Chemotherapien: Ergebnisse der Gemcitabin Retrospective Economic Analysis of Clinical Trials (GREAT)

The total cost of chemotherapy of gemcitabine/ cisplatin compared to other platinum-based agents in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer were investigated. In addition, the analysis tried to identify potential to save or reduce total treatment costs. The average total treatment cost per patient based on the comparative, randomised clinical trial by Comella et al. (2000) were 6 999 ? for gemcitabine/cisplatin compared to 8 143 ? for cisplatin/vinorelbine. On the basis of the ECOG study 1594, average treatment costs of 8250 ? for gemcitabine/cisplatin compared to 11052 for cisplatin/paclitaxel, 12265 for carboplatin/ paclitaxel and 8329 for cisplatin/docetaxel were calculated. Of interest is whether the efficacy data from both trials of the included treatments is consistent across a larger number of phase III clinical trials. From this perspective, with data from a total of 27 phase III trials the combination of gemcitabine/cisplatin is superior compared to other treatments. As first-line therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the combination of gemcitabine/cisplatin appears to offer economic benefits over other platinum-based treatments, such as taxanes or newer vinca-alcaloids. For decision makers with a limited budget, a gemcitabine based combination treatment represents an attractive therapy option.