Onkológia 1/2020

The aim of QALY in the assessment of cost – effectiveness in oncologic treatment

Quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is the term on which is based the evaluation of the benefits of new drugs or interventions in drug or health policy. The benefit is expressed by the additional costs caused by the new treatment that would bring a better quality of life, cumulatively expressed as one QALY. These costs should not exceed the threshold λ2, it means the amount of 41 533 €/QALY in 2020. Innovative oncological drugs entering the market in the Slovak Republic have very good clinical effect, but often exceed the mentioned threshold. As a result, non-systemic actions are applied, such as e.g. exceptions that bypasses the proper categorization process. The solution should be a real legislative setting and fine-tuning of the categorization process, as well as a review of the financing of too costly treatment.

Keywords: QALY, cost effectiveness, cancer treatment, drug policy, drug categorization