CCHE Seminar Series: Value of CAR T-cell therapy for cancer: What does the evidence say?

Value of CAR T-cell therapy for cancer: What does the evidence say?

Kednapa Thavorn
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Friday November 26, 2021, 10am-12pm, Zoom

Abstract: Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is a new class of cancer immunotherapies that genetically engineer patients’ T cells to target the disease. Although the therapy is promising, a careful investigation of its cost-effectiveness is required due to its high costs. Our team conducts a systematic review of economic evaluations to summarize and assess the quality of evidence on the cost-effectiveness of CAR-T therapy for cancer patients. We systematically searched electronic databases and identified systematic reviews, health technology assessments or economic evaluations comparing costs and effects of CAR-T therapy in patients diagnosed with hematologic cancers or solid tumors. Two reviewers independently screened studies using predefined inclusion criteria, extracted data and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. This talk will highlight the results and the methodological quality of 17 economic evaluation studies included in the review. Methodological options to improve the value assessment of CAR-T cell therapy will also be discussed.

Kednapa Thavorn is a Senior Scientist and a Scientific Lead of Health Economics at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, the University of Ottawa and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES. She holds a Ph.D. in Health Services Research from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. Her research focuses on health economics, health technology assessment, pharmacoepidemiology, health equity, care for people with complex needs, and population health.