Granulocyte colony-stimulating factors in the prevention of febrile neutropenia: review of cost-effectiveness models

ABSTRACT

Introduction: We reviewed the evolution of the methods used in cost-effectiveness analyses of granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSFs) in the primary and secondary prevention of febrile neutropenia (FN) in patients receiving myelosuppressive cancer chemotherapy.

Areas covered: FN is a side effect of myelosuppressive chemotherapy associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and costs. The risk of FN may depend on the drugs used within a chemotherapy regimen, and an FN event may cause chemotherapy dose reductions or delays in subsequent cycles.

Expert commentary: More recent pharmacoeconomic models have reflected these clinical observations by modeling sequential chemotherapy regimens to account for FN risk on a per-cycle basis, and by accounting for chemotherapy dose reductions and consequent survival losses.

KEYWORDS:

• Febrile neutropenia
• growth-colony stimulating factors
• cost-effectiveness
• review
• economic evaluation

Declaration of interest

K Fust, Q Gu, M Maschio, and A Parthan were paid consultants to Amgen, Inc. at the time the study was conducted. X Li, S Tzivelekis, and G Villa were employees of, and stockholders in, Amgen, Inc. and Amgen (Europe) GmbH at the time the study was conducted. MC Weinstein has been a consultant to Optum under contract with Amgen Inc. GH Lyman is PI on a research grant to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from Amgen. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by Amgen, Inc.