Chemoradiotherapy plus immunotherapy for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A cost‐effectiveness analysis

Background Research focused on the addition of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to radiotherapeutic regimens in patients with cancer has become increasingly common, revealing promising improvements in efficacy outcomes. In patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), combining immunotherapy with chemoradiotherapy can facilitate the significant prolongation of survival, emphasizing the need for pharmacoeconomic studies focused on the clinical uptake of these innovative treatment regimens. Methods A three‐state Markov model was developed based on clinical data from the randomized phase 3 CONTINUUM trial and used to compare the cost‐effectiveness of chemoradiotherapy plus sintilimab (sintilimab group) to chemoradiotherapy alone (standard group), analyzing outcomes including incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER), incremental net monetary benefit (INMB), and incremental net‐health benefit (INHB) values at a willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) threshold corresponding to three times the Chinese GDP per capita ($37 035 per quality‐adjusted life year [QALY]). Results The total costs for patients in the sintilimab and standard groups (QALYs [LYs]) were $92 116 (6.68 [10.03]) and $53 255 (3.75 [5.55]), respectively, for an ICER of $13 230/QALY ($8672/LY), an INMB of $70 021 with INHB of 1.89 QALYs. Using the selected WTP threshold. On the standard WTP threshold, the prevalence of sintilimab group as the primary treatment was 90.55% in China. The establishment of the model is stable. Conclusions Adding sintilimab to chemoradiotherapeutic regimens represents an innovative and cost‐effective means for patients with locoregionally advanced NPC management in China.