Cost-Effectiveness of Oral Nutritional Supplements in Malnourished or at Risk of Disease-Related Malnutrition Cancer Patients in North Macedonia.

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of medical nutritional support in a cancer care program in North Macedonia, comparing specialized oral nutritional supplements (ONS) with the standard of care (SOC) in managing disease-related malnutrition (DRM) in patients with or at risk of tumor cachexia syndrome.

Methods: A previously published decision tree model was employed to evaluate the economic impact of supportive treatment in cancer patients eligible for ONS. Monthly transition probabilities between health states, length of hospital stay for each treatment strategy, and utility parameters were derived from the literature. For base-case analysis, the cancer care program duration was set at 30 days. The analysis was conducted from the perspective of a national health insurance fund, utilizing a 13-year time horizon with monthly cycles. Only direct supportive care costs, estimated from publicly available data, were considered. Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained per patient and associated costs were calculated, with outcomes and costs discounted at 3.0% annually. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to assess results robustness.

Results: In the base case analysis, ONS was the dominant treatment strategy, with total costs per patient of €2605.01 for ONS versus €3759.23 for SOC, indicating a significant cost reduction. Reduced hospitalization expenses outweighed the higher acquisition costs of ONS. Additionally, ONS provided greater health benefits, achieving 8.21 QALY vs 7.91QALY in the SOC group. The resulting Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) was negative, reinforcing ONS as the dominant strategy. Sensitivity analyses confirmed that the cost-effectiveness was primarily driven by cancer program duration, with cost-saving benefits up to 132 days.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that specialized ONS is a cost-effective treatment option within a cancer care program compared with SOC. While this study focuses on North Macedonia, the results are applicable to countries with similar economic and healthcare structures, reinforcing ONS as a valuable intervention across comparable healthcare systems.