Cost-effectiveness of postremission intensive therapy in patients with acute leukemia.

BACKGROUND: We assessed the cost-effectiveness of high-dose arabinoside (HiDAC)-based and allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (alloSCT)-based therapy in patients with acute leukemia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed the outcome, cost and cost-effectiveness of 106 patients treated from January 1994 to January 2002 [94 acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)/12 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)]. Forty-two young patients at either intermediate or unknown cytogenetic risk received postremission intensive therapy (24 HiDAC-based/18 alloSCT-based therapy). RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 50 months, the estimated 7-year overall survival for the HiDAC-based group showed a tendency to be higher than the alloSCT-based group (48% versus 28%, P = 0.1452). The HiDAC-based group spent a significantly lower total cost ($US51,857 versus 75,474, P = 0.004) than the alloSCT-based group. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the mean cost per year of life saved for the HiDAC-based group is considerably less expensive than the alloSCT-based group ($US11,224 versus 21,564). The reduced total cost for the HiDAC-based group originated from lower cost in room fees, medication, laboratory and procedure, but not in blood transfusion and professional manpower fees. CONCLUSION: For the postremission therapy in young AML patients at either intermediate or unknown cytogenetic risk, cost-effectiveness of HiDAC-based therapy compares favorably with that of alloSCT-based therapy, which deserves further clinical trials.