Cost-effectiveness of oral anticancer drugs and associated individualised dosing approaches in patients with cancer: protocol for a systematic review

Abstract

IntroductionOral anticancer drugs (OADs) have rapidly expanded with more than 70 OADs targeting several molecular targets. Many of the OADs exert an exposure–response relationship but still, a ‘one-size fits-all’ dose is used, ignoring interindividual variability. Several of these OADs share similar mechanisms of actions and thus target the same cancer and has resulted in a substantial research focus on comparing the health benefit of each. However, significantly less is known about the cost–benefit associated with OADs. This paper will provide a protocol to systematically review studies that have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of OADs and their associated individualised dosing interventions.Methods and analysisSystematic review methodology will be applied to identify, select and extract data from published economic evaluation (costs and outcomes/benefits) studies of OADs and their associated individualised dosing interventions. Bibliographic databases (eg, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid MEDLINE) will be used to perform the systematic literature search (between 1 January 2000 and October 2020). Only full economic evaluations will be included, but no restrictions on study outcomes will be applied. The quality of included primary studies will be assessed using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards checklist for reporting economic evaluations. Studies with low-quality evidence will be excluded. A narrative synthesis of the results from the included studies will be undertaken, with a subgroup analysis where appropriate.Ethics and disseminationThis systematic review will not require ethics approval as there will not be any collection of primary data. Findings of this review will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at workshops or conferences and sharing through a media release. Findings from this review will provide evidence to direct and inform policy-makers where cost-neutral strategies may be effective or where dose individualising strategies may be economically beneficial. Additionally, gaps will be identified in the current literature to inform future-related research.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020218170.Electronic supplemental materialThe online version of this article contains supplemental material, which is available to authorised users.

Evaluation of health utility in trial-based cost–utility analyses for major cardiovascular disease: protocol for a systematic review

“… 25 This checklist contains 24 items; each item is scored a 1 or 0 depending on whether it is achieved or not in the study, respectively. 26 Each of the 24 items in the CHEERS checklist will be independently assessed with respect to the included studies by two investigators (YN and SM). Any disagreements will be resolved via discussion with the third investigator (HK).…”