Search

Background and Objectives: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) combined with computed tomography (CT) is a new imaging modality to detect the extra-prostatic spread of prostate cancer. PSMA PET/CT has a higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional imaging (CT ± whole body bone scan [WBBS]). This study conducted a cost-utility analysis of PSMA PET/CT compared with conventional imaging for patients with newly diagnosed, intermediate-risk or high-risk primary prostate cancer. Perspective: Australian healthcare perspective. Setting: Tertiary. Methods: A decision-analytic Markov model combined data from a variety of sources. The time horizon was 35 years. The sensitivity and specificity of PSMA PET/CT and CT alone were based on meta-analyses and the test accuracy of CT+WBBS was based on a single randomised controlled trial. Health outcomes included cases detected, life-years, and quality-adjusted life-years. Costs related to other diagnostic tests, initial treatment, adverse events, and post-disease progression were included. All costs were reported in 2021 Australian Dollars (A$). Results: The deterministic incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of PSMA PET/CT was estimated to be A $21,147/quality-adjusted life-year gained versus CT+WBBS, and A$36,231/quality-adjusted life-year gained versus CT alone. The results were most sensitive to the time horizon, and the initial treatments received by patients diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The probability of PSMA PET/CT being cost effective was estimated to be 91% versus CT+WBBS and 89% versus CT alone, using a threshold of AU$50,000/quality-adjusted life-year gained. Conclusions: PSMA PET/CT is likely to be more costly than CT+WBBS or CT alone in Australia; however, it is still likely to be considered cost effective compared with conventional imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequity in healthcare utilization is typically measured as the unequal distribution of services by observable non-need indicators, such as income, after controlling for observable need indicators. However, important sources of unequal healthcare utilization are often unobserved. The unobserved element may reflect need factors, such as imperfectly measured severity of illness, that would predict greater utilization across different healthcare channels, but also based on choice, such as patient preferences to use a particular healthcare channel over an alternative one, which may differ in its effect between channels. Accounting for unobserved sources of utilization may, therefore, help to understand contradictory inequalities between different healthcare channels, such as pro-poor inequalities for general practitioner use and pro-rich inequalities for specialist visits. This paper uses survey data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia and panel data methods to investigate if seemingly contradictory inequalities between different healthcare channels are explained by latent individual-level heterogeneity. Results show that unobserved individual-level heterogeneity affects inequities across different healthcare channels, providing indications that the unobserved element may primarily represent unobserved need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]