Health economic impact of a biopsy-based cell cycle gene expression assay in localized prostate cancer.

Prior studies have established that broader incorporation of active surveillance, guided by additional prognostic tools, may mitigate the growing economic burden of localized prostate cancer in the USA. This study sought to further explore the potential of a particular gene expression-based prognostic tool to address this unmet need. A deterministic, decision-analytic model was developed to estimate the economic impact of the Prolaris test on a US commercial health plan. When adopted in patients classified by the American Urological Association as low or intermediate risk, the assay was projected to reduce costs by $1894 and $2129 per patient over 3 and 10 years, respectively, largely through the increased use of active surveillance.