Cost-effectiveness of a hepatitis B virus screening strategy to prevent reactivation in patients with hematologic neoplasms.

Introduction: The effectiveness of a screening strategy for the detection of a hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection followed by prophylaxis in order to prevent HBV reactivation was assessed in patients with hematologic neoplasms. Material and methods: A decision tree was developed to compare the cost and effectiveness (prevented reactivations) over an 18 month period of a screening strategy prior to chemotherapy with R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone) with a non-screening approach. HBsAg+ (hepatitis B surface antigen) and/or anti-HBc+(antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen) and HBV-DNA+patients received oral antiviral prophylaxis with tenofovir disoproxil (245 mg once daily) from chemotherapy baseline until one year after chemotherapy completion. Non-screened patients received tenofovir in case of a reactivation. Model probabilities were obtained from the literature. The total cost ((sic), 2015) included: antiviral prophylaxis, R-CHOP, screening tests (HBsAg, anti-HBc, HBV-DNA) and liver function tests. Drug therapy costs were estimated using ex-factory prices with mandatory deductions. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated in order to assess the cost-effectiveness of this intervention in terms of cost per reactivation averted versus no screening. Results: In a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 patients, screening prevented 7.36 reactivations when compared to the non-screening approach (14.9 versus 22.3). Total cost/patient (including (sic) 8,282 for R-CHOP) was (sic) 8,584 for the screening strategy and (sic) 8,449 for the non-screening approach. The ICER for screening versus non-screening was (sic) 18,376/prevented reactivation. Conclusion: HBV screening followed by oral antiviral prophylaxis yielded more health benefits than non-screening, reducing HBV reactivation in patients with hematologic neoplasms on chemotherapy.