Plain language summary Is it worthwhile to use next generation liquid biopsy for cancer recurrence detection on patients with colorectal cancer? Colon cancer is common. Worldwide, almost one million people die from it every year. Next Generation Sequencing Liquid Biopsy is a very sensitive technology for detecting cancer cells and their genetic information in the blood. Therefore, it is a good way to detect cancer and to detect early recurrence of a previously treated tumor. This test procedure is not yet used very often. Therefore, it is still expensive. Furthermore, there are still no studies that have demonstrated that and how liquid biopsy can aid doctors and patients after initial treatment. The research team of this study has developed an analytical model to investigate what performance liquid biopsy should have to demonstrate an affordable patient benefit in terms of quality of life, survival and cost per additional quality-adjusted life year gained. To do this, they studied the existing medical literature and many cost studies on colorectal cancer for the countries of Spain, France and Germany to feed their model. Then, they made different assumptions about the performance of liquid biopsy and did calculations. In the process, they also particularly examined the significance of specific influencing factors such as costs or disease progression in so-called sensitivity analyses. As a result, the authors found that there are large differences in treatment costs for colorectal cancer between the three countries Spain, France and Germany. Furthermore, even small improvements in the progression of cancer and the survival of cancer patients lead to the economic efficiency of liquid biopsy for the health care system. However, these are still thought experiments, so the research team of this study says that there should be further clinical trials to assess the impact of liquid biopsy on cancer progression and patient survival by using this technology. By this, one could confirm or contradict the authors’ educated assumptions and possibly pave a new way towards medical progress for people with colorectal cancer.
【저자키워드】 health economics, Disease model, recurrence, liquid biopsy, Cost-effectiveness analysis, colorectal neoplasms, medical, Markov, Microsimulation,