PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 646 - 4 Feb 2012 Double-unit UCBT best for acute leukaemia? In France, double-unit unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT) appears to be more cost effective than single-unit UCBT for patients with acute leukaemia, say researchers from France who presented their findings at the 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology. They constructed a Markov model based on the clinical outcomes and costs of 134 consecutive cord blood transplantations, performed in 31 centres throughout France from 2001–2009. Reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) and myeloablative conditioning (MAC) were studied separately. One-year hospital costs were included; the perspective was that of the French health system. Overall, double-unit UCBT was associated with a higher incidence of graft-versus-host-disease than single-unit UCBT (56% vs 30%; p < 0.05), but also lower rates of relapse (29% vs 42%; p < 0.05), and better survival (58% vs 40% at 2 years; p < 0.05). For patients undergoing MAC, double-unit UCBT was more effective and less costly (dominant) than single-unit UCBT; however, for patients undergoing RIC, double-unit UCBT resulted in an incremental cost of €91 199 per QALY. Labopin M, et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Double-Unit Cord Blood Transplantation Versus Single-Unit Cord Blood Transplantation in Adult Patients with Acute Leukaemia in France- On Behalf of SFGM-TC, Eurocord, ALWP-EBMT. 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology : abstr. 3130, 10 Dec 2011. Available from: URL: http://ash.confex.com/ash/2011/ 803065129 webprogram/paper36980.html

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 4 Feb 2012 No. 646

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