Systematic Literature Review of Economic Evaluations of Treatment Alternatives in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

BACKGROUND: Economic evaluations are widely used to predict the economic impact of new treatment alternatives. Comprehensive economic reviews in the field of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are warranted to supplement the existing analyses focused on specific therapeutic areas. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted based on literature searches in Medline and EMBASE to summarize the published health economics models related to all types of CLL therapies. Narrative synthesis of relevant studies was performed focusing on compared treatments, patient populations, modelling approaches and key findings. RESULTS: We included 29 studies, the majority of which were published between 2016 and 2018, when data from large clinical trials in CLL became available. Treatment regimens were compared in 25 cases, while the remaining four studies considered treatment strategies with more complex patient pathways. Based on the review results, Markov modelling with a simple structure of three health states (progression-free, progressed, death) can be considered as the traditional basis to simulate cost effectiveness. However, more recent studies added further complexity, including additional health states for different therapies (e.g. best supportive care or stem cell transplantation), for progression-free state (e.g. by differentiating between with or without treatment), or for response status (i.e. partial response and complete response). CONCLUSIONS: As personalized medicine is increasingly gaining recognition, we expect that future economic evaluations will also incorporate new solutions, which are necessary to capture a larger number of genetic and molecular markers and more complex patient pathways with individual patient-level allocation of treatment options and thus economic assessments.

[New opportunities offered by digital technology in melanoma malignum screening.] / A digitális technológia kínálta új lehetoségek a melanoma malignum szurésében.

INTRODUCTION: In Eastern and Central Europe, Hungary has the third highest incidence of melanoma after the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In order to improve the efficiency of melanoma diagnostics and screening, several technological developments have been made in recent years, one is the integrated automated total body mapping and digital dermatoscopy. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this targeted literature review is to demonstrate the potential of new digital technologies developed for total body mapping in relation to melanoma screening. METHOD: Targeted literature review was performed to collect information. We searched in publicly available databases for guidelines and recommendations as well as scientific publications on screening and early detection of melanoma. RESULTS: We identified 15 international guidelines and recommendations summarizing screening and early detection of melanoma. We did not find any Hungarian guidelines on melanoma screening. We analyzed 2 clinical, 5 observational studies and 8 systematic reviews on the effectiveness of digital dermatoscopy and automated total body mapping. We found 10 studies that investigated the complementary role of machine learning algorithms in the early diagnosis of melanoma. DISCUSSION: Digital dermatoscopy and total body mapping can help identify skin malignancies or new melanoma at high-risk individuals. Due to the lack of reliable data of melanoma screening programmes on cancer mortality, population-based melanoma screening is not recommended by international guidelines. CONCLUSION: International guidelines highlight the role of automated total body mapping and sequential digital dermatoscopic imaging in screening of individuals at increased risk of melanoma. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(49): 1943-1951.

Burden of Chronic Heart Failure in Romania.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) affects millions of people across the world, with increasing trends in prevalence, putting ever increasing pressure on the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to assess the financial burden of CHF hospital care on the public healthcare sector in Romania by estimating the number of inpatient episodes and the associated costs. Additionally, societal costs associated with missed work and premature death of CHF patients were also estimated. The national claims database was analyzed to estimate the number of CHF patients. Cost data was extracted from a pool of nine public hospitals in Romania. In 2019, 375,037 CHF patient episodes were identified on specific wards at the national level. The average cost calculated for the selected nine hospitals was EUR 996. The calculated weighted national average cost per patient episode was EUR 1002, resulting in a total cost of EUR 376 million at the national level. The cost of workdays missed summed up to EUR 122 million, while the annual costs associated with the premature death of CHF patients was EUR 230 million. In conclusion, the prevalence of CHF in Romania is high, accounting for a large proportion of hospitalizations, which translates into large costs for the national payer.

Patient-reported symptom burden of chronic graft versus host disease: a systematic literature review.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a life-threating complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) leading to high morbidity and quality of life issues. We conducted a systematic literature review on the patient reported symptom burden of chronic GVHD. AREAS COVERED: English-language articles published between 2005 and November 2018 were searched using CENTRAL, EMBASE and MEDLINE. Studies that used the 2005 or 2015 National Institute of Health consensus criteria for the diagnosis and staging of chronic GVHD were included. EXPERT OPINION: Patient reported symptom burden was widely assessed in the literature (n = 38). The Lee Chronic GVHD Symptom Scale was the most frequently used instrument (n = 28), followed by the NIH Patient-reported Symptom scores (n = 11). Association of symptom burden with clinical outcome assessment endpoints (e.g. mortality) and with quality of life measures was investigated by fairly low number of studies with limited generalizability. By systematically investigating the influencing factors of symptom burden this review helps to better understand patients' perceptions and may help improving the management and care of chronic GVHD. However, data on influencing factors was quite diverse, which indicates that specific questions identified as research gaps need to be incorporated in randomized clinical trials in a more systematic way.