Health economics

In the past 15 years, treatment outcomes for hematologic malignancies have improved substantially. However, drug prices have also increased drastically. This commentary examines the value of the treatment of hematologic malignancies at current prices in the United States through a reanalysis of a systematic review evaluating 29 studies of 9 treatments for 4 hematologic malignancies. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated on the basis of drug prices in the United States in 2014. Sixty-three percent of the studies (15 of 24) had ICERs higher than $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY), the benchmark widely used by health economists to define cost-effectiveness...