ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
This article is part of the Research TopicEconomic Burdens and Efficiency in Cancer CareView all 5 articles
Cost-effectiveness analysis of irinotecan hydrochloride liposome in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Provisionally accepted
Shaoqing Zhan
Panfeng Feng*- Affiliated hospital 2 of nantong univeristy, nantong, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of irinotecan hydrochloride liposome in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (5-FU/LV) as a second-line treatment in locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, from the perspective of the healthcare system in China. Methods: A partitioned survival model was developed based on data from PAN-HEROIC-1 clinical trial (NCT05074589) and relevant literature. The simulation horizon was set at 5 years, with a cycle length of 2 weeks. Costs and utility values were discounted at an annual rate of 5%. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) served as the primary outcome measure, and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was calculated to compare irinotecan hydrochloride liposome plus chemotherapy regimen (experimental group) with the 5-FU/LV regimen (control group). One-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to assess the robustness of the results. Results: The results revealed that the ICER for the experimental group compared to the control group was ¥1,271,796.38/QALY, exceeding the willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of three times China's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. One-way sensitivity analysis indicated that parameters such as utility value during progression-free survival, body surface area, the cost of irinotecan hydrochloride liposome and the utility value during disease progression significantly influenced the model outcomes. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the probability of the irinotecan hydrochloride liposome being cost-effective was 0. Conclusion: When using three times per capita GDP of China in 2023 as the WTP threshold, the irinotecan hydrochloride liposome plus chemotherapy regimen is not considered cost-effective compared to the standard 5-FU/LV regimen.
Keywords: cost-effectiveness analysis, irinotecan hydrochloride liposome, Second-line treatment, locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, partitioned survival model
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhan and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Panfeng Feng, 929083891@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.