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Clinical Research

Budget impact analysis of a new prostate cancer risk index for prostate cancer detection

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 14, pages 253–261 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the budget impact of a new prostate cancer risk index for detecting prostate cancer. The index is calculated as the combination of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free PSA and a precursor form p2PSA. We constructed two budget impact models using PSA cutoff values of ⩾2 ng ml−1 (model #1) and ⩾4 ng ml−1 (model #2) for recommending a prostate biopsy in a hypothetical health plan with 100 000 male members aged 50–75 years old. The budgetary impact on the 1-year expected total costs for prostate cancer detection was calculated. Adding the index to the current PSA prostate cancer testing strategies including the total PSA and percent free PSA, the number of detected cancer cases decreased by 20 and 5, in models #1 and #2, respectively. The savings on expected 1-year cost for prostate cancer detection were $356 647 (or $0.30 per-member-per-month (PMPM)) in model #1 and $94 219 ($0.08 PMPM) in model #2. The index produced higher cost savings in the model #1 with PSA cutoff ⩾2 ng ml−1 than the model #2 with cutoff ⩾4 ng ml−1 with a small short-term reduction in the number of positive tests.

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Acknowledgements

Partial contents of this research have been presented at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 15th Annual International Meeting, Atlanta, GA, May 2010. This study was funded by Beckman Coulter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    M B Nichol, J Wu & J J An

  2. Beckman Coulter, Inc., Brea, CA, USA

    J Huang & D Denham

  3. Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA, USA

    S Frencher & S J Jacobsen

  4. School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, CA, USA

    M B Nichol

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  1. M B Nichol
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Correspondence to M B Nichol.

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Research funding for this study was provided by Beckman Coulter. Dr Michael B Nichol has received research grant from Beckman; Joanne Wu and Jae Jin An have been paid from the research funding from Beckman Coulter in connection with this paper; Joice Huang and Dwight Denham are both employees of Beckman Coulter.

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Nichol, M., Wu, J., An, J. et al. Budget impact analysis of a new prostate cancer risk index for prostate cancer detection. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 14, 253–261 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/pcan.2011.16

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