Evaluating the impact of PD-1 inhibitor treatment on key health outcomes for cancer patients in China

Background There is a lack of studies examining the influence of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors on the health outcomes of cancer patients in China. Aim This study aimed to evaluate prospective health outcomes associated with introducing PD-1 inhibitor treatment in China over five years. Method We constructed a partitioned survival model to assess disparities in health outcomes over a 5-year time frame between two scenarios: one involving the availability of PD-1 inhibitor class with standard of care and the other involving standard of care alone. The impact on various health outcomes were assessed, including life years (LYs) gained, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, progression-free survival (PFS) years gained, the reduction in the number of grade 3–5 adverse events (AEs), and the improvement in objective remission rates (ORR). A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the robustness and reliability of the model. Results From 2023 to 2027, the incorporation of PD-1 inhibitor class treatments was anticipated to yield substantial improvements in health outcomes, with an estimated increase of 1,336,332 LYs (+ 24.7%), 1,065,359 QALYs (+ 30.3%), and 1,177,564 PFS years (+ 57.4%) compared to standard of care alone. Simultaneously, the number of grade 3–5 AEs decreased by 334,976 (− 13.0%), and the ORR saw a 19.1% increase (+ 105.6%) relative to standard of care treatment alone. Conclusion This study provides a analysis of the potential beneficial effects on health outcomes in the Chinese population after introducing PD-1 inhibitor class treatment. The findings suggest the PD-1 inhibitor class will significantly improve patient survival.