CitationNifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy for secondstage African Trypanosoma brucei gambiense trypanosomiasis: a multicentre, randomised, phase III, noninferiority trial. Priotto G, et al. (2009) We assessed the effi cacy and safety of nifurtimox-efl ornithine combination therapy (NECT) for second-stage disease compared with the standard efl ornithine regimen.

Healthcare resource allocation decisions made under conditions of uncertainty may turn out to be suboptimal. In a resource constrained system in which there is a fixed budget, these suboptimal decisions will result in health loss. Consequently, there may be value in reducing uncertainty, through the collection of new evidence, to make better resource allocation decisions. This value can be quantified using a value of information (VOI) analysis. This report, from the ISPOR VOI Task Force, introduces VOI analysis, defines key concepts and terminology, and outlines the role of VOI for supporting decision making, including the steps involved in undertaking and interpreting VOI analyses. The report is specifically aimed at those tasked with making decisions about the adoption of healthcare or the funding of healthcare research. The report provides a number of recommendations for good practice when planning, undertaking, or reviewing the results of VOI analyses.Keywords: decision making, expected net benefit of sampling, expected value of information, expected value of perfect information, value of information, value of research.

The allocation of healthcare resources among competing priorities requires an assessment of the expected costs and health effects of investing resources in the activities and of the opportunity cost of the expenditure. To date, much effort has been devoted to assessing the expected costs and health effects, but there remains an important need to also reflect the consequences of uncertainty in resource allocation decisions and the value of further research to reduce uncertainty. Decision making with uncertainty may turn out to be suboptimal, resulting in health loss. Consequently, there may be value in reducing uncertainty, through the collection of new evidence, to better inform resource decisions. This value can be quantified using value of information (VOI) analysis. This report from the ISPOR VOI Task Force describes methods for computing 4 VOI measures: the expected value of perfect information, expected value of partial perfect information (EVPPI), expected value of sample information (EVSI), and expected net benefit of sampling (ENBS). Several methods exist for computing EVPPI and EVSI, and this report provides guidance on selecting the most appropriate method based on the features of the decision problem. The report provides a number of recommendations for good practice when planning, undertaking, or reviewing VOI analyses. The software needed to compute VOI is discussed, and areas for future research are highlighted.

Objectives: Our objective was to compare the efficacy and safety of three drug combinations for the treatment of late-stage human African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.Design:This trial was a randomized, open-label, active control, parallel clinical trial comparing three arms.Setting:The study took place at the Sleeping Sickness Treatment Center run by Médecins Sans Frontières at Omugo, Arua District, UgandaParticipants:Stage 2 patients diagnosed in Northern Uganda were screened for inclusion and a total of 54 selected.Interventions:Three drug combinations were given to randomly assigned patients: melarsoprol-nifurtimox (M+N), melarsoprol-eflornithine (M+E), and nifurtimox-eflornithine (N+E). Dosages were uniform: intravenous (IV) melarsoprol 1.8 mg/kg/d, daily for 10 d; IV eflornithine 400 mg/kg/d, every 6 h for 7 d; oral nifurtimox 15 (adults) or 20 (children <15 y) mg/kg/d, every 8 h for 10 d. Patients were followed up for 24 mo.Outcome Measures:Outcomes were cure rates and adverse events attributable to treatment.Results:Randomization was performed on 54 patients before enrollment was suspended due to unacceptable toxicity in one of the three arms. Cure rates obtained with the intention to treat analysis were M+N 44.4%, M+E 78.9%, and N+E 94.1%, and were significantly higher with N+E (p = 0.003) and M+E (p = 0.045) than with M+N. Adverse events were less frequent and less severe with N+E, resulting in fewer treatment interruptions and no fatalities. Four patients died who were taking melarsoprol-nifurtimox and one who was taking melarsoprol-eflornithine.Conclusions:The N+E combination appears to be a promising first-line therapy that may improve treatment of sleeping sickness, although the results from this interrupted study do not permit conclusive interpretations. Larger studies are needed to continue the evaluation of this drug combination in the treatment of T. b. gambiense sleeping sickness.

Background. Human African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense is a fatal disease. Current treatment options for patients with second-stage disease are either highly toxic or impracticable in field conditions. We compared the efficacy and safety of the nifurtimox-eflornithine drug combination with the standard eflornithine regimen for the treatment of secondstage disease. Methods.A randomized, open-label, active-control, phase III clinical trial comparing 2 arms was conducted at the Sleeping Sickness Treatment Center, which was run by Médecins Sans Frontières, in Nkayi, Bouenza Province, Republic of Congo. Patients were screened for inclusion and randomly assigned to receive eflornithine alone (400 mg/kg per day given intravenously every 6 h for 14 days) or eflornithine (400 mg/kg per day given intravenously every 12 h for 7 days) plus nifurtimox (15 mg/kg per day given orally every 8 h for 10 days). Patients were observed for 18 months. The study's outcomes were cure and adverse events attributable to treatment.Results. A total of 103 patients with second-stage disease were enrolled. Cure rates were 94.1% for the eflornithine group and 96.2% for the nifurtimox-eflornithine group. Drug reactions were frequent in both arms, and severe reactions affected 25.5% of patients in the eflornithine group and 9.6% of those in the nifurtimox-eflornithine group, resulting in 2 and 1 treatment suspensions, respectively. There was 1 death in the eflornithine arm and no deaths in the nifurtimox-eflornithine arm.Conclusions. The nifurtimox-eflornithine combination appears to be a promising first-line therapy for second-stage sleeping sickness. If our findings are corroborated by ongoing findings from additional sites (a multicenter extension of this study), the new nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy will mark a major and multifaceted advance over current therapies.