Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Germline and Somatic BRCA Testing in Patients With Advanced Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Background: BRCA testing is necessary for establishing a management strategy for ovarian cancer. Several BRCA testing strategies, including germline and somatic testing, are implemented in clinical practice in Korea. We aimed to comparatively evaluate their cost-effectiveness from patients' perspective.

Methods: We developed a decision model comprising five BRCA testing strategies implemented in Korea: (1) germline testing first, followed by somatic tumor testing for patients without a germline variant; (2) somatic testing first, followed by germline testing for patients with a variant detected by somatic testing; (3) both germline and somatic testing; (4) germline testing alone; and (5) somatic testing alone, with no testing as the comparator. One-way sensitivity analysis was conducted to test the uncertainty of key parameters.

Results: Assuming a willingness-to-pay of $20,000 per progression-free life-year gain (PF-LYG), all five strategies were considered cost-effective. Strategy 4 was the most cost-effective option, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $2,547.7 per PF-LYG, followed by strategy 1, with an ICER of $3,978.4 per PF-LYG. Even when the parameter values were varied within the possible range, the ICERs of all strategies did not exceed the willingness-to-pay threshold.

Conclusions: Considering the importance of knowing a patient's BRCA gene status, germline testing first, followed by somatic testing, may be a reasonable option.