Costs of subcutaneous and intravenous administration of trastuzumab for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

Abstract

Aim: Trastuzumab is available in an intravenous (iv.) and a subcutaneous (sc.) formulation. The objective of this study was to estimate the costs of administration of iv. and sc. trastuzumab treatment.

Materials & methods: Via interviews, we identified all the activities associated with iv. and sc. administration. The outcome was time estimates. To estimate the administration costs, the time estimates were valued by average gross wages.

Results: The iv. administration takes longer time as infusion time is longer (25 or 85 min). The iv. administration is associated with higher cost for 17 cycles; €971 (€1858 vs €887).

Conclusion: sc. administration is associated with lower administration costs. Switching patients from iv. to sc. would make it possible to treat more patients without increasing the personnel resources.

Keywords: HER2-positive breast cancer; administration; costs.