Biomedical subjects

A Kielhorn

Publications and source records attributed to A Kielhorn.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Cost-minimisation analysis comparing gemcitabine/cisplatin, paclitaxel/carboplatin and vinorelbine/cisplatin in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer in Italy.

A retrospective cost-minimisation analysis was conducted comparing novel chemotherapies for the treatment of chemo-naive patients with locally advanced, recurrent, and/or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Resource use information was obtained from a Phase III randomised trial investigating the efficacy and toxicity of gemcitabine/cisplatin (Gem/Cis), paclitaxel/carboplatin (Pac/Carbo) and vinorelbine/cisplatin (Vin/Cis) combination regimens in 612 patients with advanced NSCLC. Since there were no statistically significant differences between the three treatments in terms of progression-free or overall survival in this trial, a cost-minimisation analysis was considered to be the appropriate type of economic evaluation. The perspective was that of the national healthcare provider in Italy. Medical resource use was obtained from the clinical trial database, from which mean cost streams were calculated for each treatment group. The mean total treatment costs per patient were 8094 euros, 11,203 euros and 9320 euros for the Gem/Cis, Pac/Carbo and Vin/Cis regimens, respectively. Based on resource consumption in a clinical trial, Gem/Cis had the lowest overall mean costs of the three chemotherapy regimens. Gem/Cis therefore has the potential to save costs in the treatment of advanced NSCLC in Italy.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗

PubMed2005

Determining patient preferences for improved chemotoxicity during treatment for advanced bladder cancer.

Determining patient preferences for improved chemotoxicity during treatment for advanced bladder cancer Conventional treatment for advanced bladder cancer is methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin plus cisplatin (MVAC), with a median survival of 1 year but significant toxicity. The newer combination of gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GC) has demonstrated comparable survival and an improved toxicity profile (Von der Maase et al. 2000). At present, the importance to patients of the toxicity of chemotherapy has not been widely studied. An earlier study in bladder cancer indicated that toxicity was an important determinant of treatment preference (Davey et al. 2000). A study of preferences for advanced bladder cancer therapy in the UK was proposed.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic↗

PubMed1999

Cost effectiveness of fluticasone propionate and flunisolide in the treatment of corticosteroid-naive patients with moderate asthma.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness of 2 inhaled corticosteroids, fluticasone propionate and flunisolide, in the management of asthma from a third-party payer perspective in Germany (German Sickness Fund). DESIGN AND SETTING: Direct treatment costs were retrospectively applied to 2 prospective randomised parallel group clinical trials conducted in Germany comparing fluticasone propionate and flunisolide: one 6-week open-label study (n = 332) and one 8-week double-blind study (n = 308) in corticosteroid-naive patients with asthma of moderate severity aged between 18 and 70 years. All costs were adjusted to 1997 Deutschmarks. Efficacy parameters included changes in morning and evening peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurements, the number of successfully treated patients (defined as those with a PEFR improvement of > or = 10%) and proportion of symptom-free days. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: The fluticasone propionate groups had higher respective proportions of successfully treated patients and symptom-free days than the flunisolide groups in both the open-label (56.8 vs 39.6% and 36.4 vs 28.5%) and double-blind (55.3 vs 44.5% and 35.1 vs 31.1%) studies. Improvements in both morning and evening PEFR measurements were also significantly (p < 0.01) greater with fluticasone propionate than with flunisolide. Although average daily treatment costs were slightly higher in the fluticasone propionate groups than in the flunisolide groups, all cost-effectiveness ratios (daily cost per successfully treated patient and daily cost per symptom-free day) favoured fluticasone propionate. Sensitivity analysis showed that these results were robust over a wide range of assumptions. CONCLUSION: In these patients, management with fluticasone propionate was more cost effective than with flunisolide in the German healthcare setting.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

[Cost of asthma therapy in relation to severity. An empirical study].

BACKGROUND: The aim of asthma therapy, i.e. the permanent elimination of the patient's symptoms, is as a rule, achievable over the long-term only with the aid of anti-inflammatory drugs. As well as medical, this approach also has considerable economic implications. The comparatively low compliance among asthmatics makes treatment in this context all the more difficult. An alternative that presents itself is the use of combination preparations, a mixture of a long-term prophylactic and a therapeutic agent. PATIENTS AND METHODS: With the aid of standardised questionnaires, data were acquired from 216 patients and assigned to subgroups in accordance with the degree of severity of the asthma. The patients were treated in the offices of a total of 23 GPs and internists selected at random from a complete list of all relevant practices in Germany. The use of resources, i.e. all diagnostic and therapeutic measures, was recorded retrospectively for a period of 1 year. In this way, all those resources of relevance to the health insurance carriers used during the observation period were identified. In addition to direct costs, so-called indirect costs were also estimated, i.e. in the present study the productivity loss to the economy due to illness-related absence from work. RESULTS: The annual cost of treating adult asthmatics was calculated to be DM 3,339 for level 1 severity, DM 5,260 for level 2 severity and DM 12,016 for level 3 severity. As the illness progresses in particular the direct cost of inpatient care and the indirect costs rise disproportionately. The yearly expenditure for women sufferers is about DM 800 more than for male sufferers. The direct cost of asthma treatment in children amounts to DM 2,950 for level 1, DM 3,225 for level 2, and DM 4,811 for level 3, severity. Here, drug-related costs in particular, rise significantly as the disease progresses. CONCLUSION: One of the results of the present study is the fact that for asthma sufferers in general, there is a positive correlation between average total costs and degree of severity. It may thus be postulated that preventive medical treatment of asthma that slows the progression of the illness, together with appropriate patient instruction, would have a positive effect on the total expenditure per patient. If, for example, the appropriate use of drugs in combination with patient instruction improved the compliance of asthmatics, lower treatment costs and a better quality of life for the patient could be expected.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1974