Pancreatic cancer - cost for overtreatment with gemcitabine

Gemcitabine has been the standard chemotherapeutic agent in pancreatic cancer. However, two-thirds of pancreatic tumors display low expression of human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1), which mediates cellular entry of the drug, and do not respond to gemcitabine therapy. The objective was to determine the costs of gemcitabine overtreatment and the cost-effectiveness of hENT1 testing using a Swedish pancreatic cancer cohort. Material and methods. The study population included 87 patients that were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during 2008-2010 at Skane University Hospital, Lund. A detailed review of treatments, side effects and resource utilization was performed. The proportion of hENT1-low was estimated at two-thirds based on previous evaluations of tumor samples from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trial 9704, the German AIO Pancreatic Cancer Group (AIO-PK) trial 0104, the Low hENT1 and Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas (LEAP) trial and the authors' own institution. The cost of the hENT1 test was estimated at (sic)50-200. Results. Sixty patients received gemcitabine and the other 27 best supportive care. Drug administration and hospitalization were the main expenditures. Grade 3 and 4 toxicities occurred in 42%, the most common being neutropenia (18%). The hospital costs related to gemcitabine overtreatment amounted to 5358 per pancreatic cancer patient, corresponding to as much as one-third of the total treatment cost. The health economical costs amounted to 9449 per patient when including indirect costs. Using hENT1 testing to select patients for gemcitabine therapy would save (sic)8.6 million in Sweden each year. Conclusion. Total costs related to gemcitabine overtreatment were high. Individualizing gemcitabine treatment is cost-saving and would reduce unnecessary treatment-related toxicity.