Dr. Pennell on the Economic Impact of Next-Generation Sequencing

Nathan Pennell, MD, PhD, director, Lung Cancer Medical Oncology Program, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, discusses the economic impact of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for patients with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The study, which was presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, took a hypothetical cohort of 1 million patients from a payer perspective, identifying how many were likely to get metastatic NSCLC and how many would be covered by Medicare or Medicaid versus private insurance. Researches calculated the costs of single-gene tests versus NGS and then compared what it would cost all of them using 3 other strategies.

For those under national insurance programs, NGS represented savings of $1,393,678 versus exclusionary mutation, $1,530,869 versus sequential testing and $2,140,795 versus panel testing. NGS saved commercial payers up to $3,809 versus exclusionary and up to $250,842 versus panel testing.

Pennell explained that NGS was also faster, and a higher percentage of patients with genetic alterations who could benefit from treatment identified with the trial’s strategy.