The Societal/economical Impact of Trastuzumab-deruxtecan in Patients with Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor2-positive Metastatic Breast Cancer

Abstract

In the recent DESTINY-Breast03 trial, trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) has shown significantly prolonged progression free survival (PFS) compared with trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) among human epidermal growth factor2- positive metastatic breast cancer (HER2+ MBC) patients. While there is clear evidence of the clinical benefits of T-DXd, evidence on societal effects that go beyond these clinical benefits is yet to be explored. Thus, we estimated the socioeconomic benefits of T-DXd compared to T-DM1 among HER2+ MBC patients. We first calculated the incremental health benefits that T-DXd generates compared to T-DM1 in terms of prolonged PFS. We then translated the incremental PFS into the time spent on paid work and unpaid work hours. Lastly, the overall societal impact of T-DXd was yielded by aggregating the potential gross domestic products that can be generated from both paid and unpaid work hours. We identified 2,212 patients who are eligible for the analyses. Overall, the prolonged PFS of T-DXd resulted in a socioeconomic benefit of approximately 260 billion KRW, which corresponded to 110 million KRW per patient. In conclusion, we observed considerable socioeconomic benefits that come along with the use of the novel drug, T-DXd, which will be helpful for healthcare policymakers in decision-making.