Division of Medical Oncology, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC.
Curr Oncol. 2012 Dec;19(6):e428-35. doi: 10.3747/co.19.1152.
The increasing cost of cancer drugs underscores the importance of economic analyses. Although guidelines for abstract reporting of randomized controlled studies and phase i trials are available, similar recommendations for conference abstracts of economic analyses are lacking. Our objectives were to identify items considered to be essential in abstracts of economic analyses;to evaluate the quality of abstracts submitted to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (asco), the American Society of Hematology (ash), and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ispor) meetings; andto propose guidelines for future abstract reporting at conferences.
Health economic experts were surveyed and asked to rate each of 24 possible abstract elements on a 5-point Likert scale. A scoring system for abstract quality was devised based on elements with an average expert rating of 3.5 or greater. Abstracts for economic analyses from asco, ash, and ispor meetings were reviewed and assigned a quality score.
Of 99 experts, 50 (51%) responded to the survey (average age: 53 years; 78% men; 54% from the United States, 28% from Europe, 18% from Canada). In total, 216 abstracts were reviewed: asco, 53%; ash, 14%; and ispor, 33%. The median quality score was 75, but notable deficiencies were observed. Cost perspective was reported in only 61% of abstracts, and time horizon was described in only 47%. Abstracts from recent years demonstrated better quality scores. We also observed disparities in quality scores for various cancer sites (p = 0.005).
The quality of conference abstracts for economic analyses in oncology has room for improvement. Abstracts may be enhanced using the guidelines derived from our survey of experts.
癌症药物成本的不断增加凸显了经济分析的重要性。虽然有关于随机对照研究和 I 期试验摘要报告的指南，但缺乏类似的关于经济分析会议摘要的建议。我们的目标是确定在经济分析摘要中被认为是必要的项目；评估提交给美国临床肿瘤学会（asco）、美国血液学会（ash）和国际药物经济学和结果研究学会（ispor）会议的摘要的质量；并提出未来会议摘要报告的指南。
调查了卫生经济学专家，并要求他们对 24 个可能的摘要元素中的每一个进行 5 点李克特量表评分。根据专家平均评分为 3.5 或更高的元素，设计了一个摘要质量评分系统。对 asco、ash 和 ispor 会议的经济分析摘要进行了审查，并给出了质量评分。
在 99 位专家中，有 50 位（51%）对调查做出了回应（平均年龄：53 岁；78%为男性；54%来自美国，28%来自欧洲，18%来自加拿大）。共审查了 216 份摘要：asco，53%；ash，14%；ispor，33%。中位数质量得分为 75，但存在明显缺陷。仅 61%的摘要报告了成本视角，仅 47%的摘要描述了时间范围。近年来的摘要质量得分更高。我们还观察到不同癌症部位的质量得分存在差异（p=0.005）。
肿瘤学中经济分析会议摘要的质量还有待提高。可以使用我们的专家调查得出的指南来增强摘要。
