The Cost-Effectiveness of Bortezomib Plus Melphalan and Prednisone Versus Lenalidomide Plus Melphalan and Prednisone with Continuous Lenalidomide Maintenance Treatment for the Initial Treatment of Multiple Myeloma In the United States

• Published in: Blood 2010-11, Vol.116 (21), p.2563-2563
• Main Authors: Wang, Si-Tien, Huang, Hui, Ba-Mancini, Abbie, Shi, Hongliang, Chen, Kristina, Korves, Caroline, Dhawan, Ravinder, Cakana, Andrew, van de Velde, Helgi, Esseltine, Dixie-Lee W., Duh, Mei S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood.V116.21.2563.2563

Abstract 2563 Results from the phase 3 VISTA trial demonstrated that bortezomib (Velcade®) plus melphalan and prednisone (VMP) has superior efficacy to MP alone in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) ineligible for ASCT. In a similar patient population, the three-arm phase 3 MM-015 trial compared lenalidomide (Revlimid®) plus MP with or without continuous lenalidomide maintenance treatment after cycle 9 (MPR-R vs MPR) with MP alone. There was no difference in progression-free (PFS) or overall survival (OS) between patients who received MPR or MP during the 9-cycle induction period; MPR-R was associated with superior PFS vs MP during the R maintenance period. To assess the value of R in combination with MP followed by R maintenance therapy we indirectly estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness of VMP vs MPR-R as therapy for MM patients ineligible for ASCT. An Excel-based Markov model from the US payer's perspective was developed. Simulations were performed for hypothetical cohorts of newly diagnosed MM patients ineligible for ASCT with an average age of 70 years at treatment initiation. The model includes seven health states representing periods of treatment response (stable disease/minimal response, partial response, and complete response), treatment-free interval/maintenance treatment, progressive disease, second-line treatment, and death. Monthly transition probabilities were estimated from patient-level data for VISTA for VMP and MP (data cut-off June 15 2007; San Miguel et al NEJM 2008) and published results for MM-015 for MPR-R (data cut-off April 15 2009; Palumbo et al ASH 2009). As previously reported (Wang et al ASH 2009), costs included per-protocol drug and medical costs, treatment-related adverse event costs, second-line treatment costs, and resource utilization during the treatment-free interval and progressive disease; all costs were adjusted to 2010 US dollars. State-specific utility estimates were derived from patient-level EQ-5D data from the VISTA trial using US-specific weights. Health outcomes (as indicators of the effectiveness of therapy) were expressed in life years (LYs) and quality-adjusted LYs (QALYs). Costs and health outcomes were discounted at 3%. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated for VMP vs MPR-R over a lifetime horizon (20 years). In the base case, the MPR-R vs MP hazard ratio (HR) for PFS was set to 0.499 and that for OS was set to 1, due to a lack of survival benefit with MPR-R