Dr. Magee highlights cost savings associated with gemcitabine-docetaxel in NMIBC
"This study looks at comparing BCG, which is our classic mainstay in the treatment of high-risk non-muscle–invasive bladder cancer to intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel," says Diana Magee, MD.
In this video, Diana Magee, MD, highlights the background and findings of the study, "Sequential intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel versus bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer: a preliminary cost-effectiveness analysis,” which was presented at the 2023 American Urological Association Annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Magee is a urologic oncology fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennslyvania.
Video Transcript:
This study looks at comparing BCG, which is our classic mainstay in the treatment of high-risk non-muscle–invasive bladder cancer to intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel. It's looking at which treatment is most cost effective between the 2 of them. We know that BCG has been the landmark treatment for the last 40 years, but it has issues with tolerability, efficacy, and certainly over the last about 5 years, issues of availability. So, there's interest in finding an alternative treatment that either is more effective, patients do better with or has more reliable access.
This is all based on preliminary data that came out of a retrospective cohort study that was done at the University of Iowa, so based on the single-center database that looked at the use of gemcitabine-docetaxel regimen. What we found in our study when we looked at the cost effectiveness when we compared it to BCG is that intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel is more cost effective than BCG treatment by about $5,000 per patient at about 2 years. We also found that they have roughly about the same efficacy when we measured it based on quality adjusted life years, so they both resulted in about 1.76 quality adjusted life years at 2 years.
This video has been edited for clarity.
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