Pazopanib Sarcoma Cost Effectiveness Model

Trial description: A cost effectiveness model was developed in order to understand how pazopanib compared to other commonly used drugs following the failure of first line chemotherapy to treat advanced soft tissue sarcoma (aSTS) in terms of cost effectiveness. In order to compare cost effectiveness, it was necessary to establish the relative efficacy of available therapies based on trial data. A systematic review identified a limited number of Phase II trials providing evidence for the efficacy of these comparators. However, the lack of a common comparator to link pazopanib to these comparators meant that it was not feasible to perform an adjusted indirect comparison of efficacy, allowing for the adjustment for any differences in study population baseline characteristics (e.g. differences in histological subtypes included or baseline performance status). This meant a simple direct comparison was the most feasible way to compare efficacy of these different therapies. In order to maximize the robustness of this unadjusted indirect comparison, a meta-analysis was performed in order to synthesize all available data when more than one trial was available to support a comparator, as was the case for trabectedin and gemcitabine in combination with docetaxel.It was acknowledged in advance that indirectly comparing the efficacy of these active therapies to pazopanib had the potential to be biased due to the fact that different patient subpopulations were used in individual trials. But keeping in mind this shortcoming, pooling the efficacy data for comparators allowed us to make use of the available evidence to provide the best estimate for efficacy of comparators of pazopanib in aSTS at this time.