Brain Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Cancer, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, treatment.

The economics of temozolomide in brain cancer.

Crott R

Cliniques Universitaires St-Luc, Brussels, Belgium. Ralph.Crott@skynet.be

For 30 years, nitrosourea was the only adjuvant treatment available for aggressive glioma patients, despite its severe side effects; and, therefore, radiotherapy was often the therapy of choice. Survival prospect in these patients was, however, low with generally few patients surviving beyond 2 years. Recently, temozolomide was successfully tested in a number of randomised clinical trials and showed an increased survival. As many countries are considering reimbursement or have granted a market authorisation for temozolomide, a number of studies have been published in various countries in order to assess the cost-effectiveness of temozolomide for glioma patients in first- or second-line treatment. These studies show that in general, the incremental cost-effectiveness of temozolomide as adjuvant treatment, albeit at the higher end of commonly accepted thresholds, falls in line with other accepted cancer treatments.

Published 16 August 2007 in Expert Opin Pharmacother, 8(12): 1923-9.
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