Healthcare Spending and Systemic Bevacizumab for Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis

Ari D Schuman; Alyssa C Chapel; Peng You; Rajkumar Venkatramani; Heidi V Russell; Nikhila Raol; Julina Ongkasuwan

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.03.030

Healthcare Spending and Systemic Bevacizumab for Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis

J Voice. 2024 Apr 25:S0892-1997(24)00108-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.03.030. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ari D Schuman¹, Alyssa C Chapel², Peng You³, Rajkumar Venkatramani⁴, Heidi V Russell⁴, Nikhila Raol⁵, Julina Ongkasuwan⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolarygnology-Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
² Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, Texas.
³ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, London Health Sciences Center, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology-Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
⁵ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
⁶ Department of Otolarygnology-Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Pediatric Otolaryngology, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas. Electronic address: julinao@bcm.edu.

PMID: 38664168
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.03.030

Abstract

Objectives: Juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JoRRP) is a rare, costly condition linked to human papillomavirus. Standard of care is serial surgical debridement. Many adjunctive therapies have been trialed, with recent success with systemic bevacizumab. This paper examines healthcare spending associated with systemic bevacizumab use for JoRRP and compares it to healthcare spending for surgical care alone to determine whether bevacizumab has a financial benefit.

Methods: Five patients treated with systemic bevacizumab for JoRRP were identified at a single institution. Spending data was derived from the electronic medical record. Sensitivity analysis was performed using variation in spending and frequency of treatments.

Results: Patients had an average of 4.2 treatments per year prior to bevacizumab (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-7.0) and 1.1 after (0.2-2.0). Patients underwent an average of 9.2 bevacizumab treatments in their first year after initiation, 4.0 in the second, and 4.5 in their third. Mean payment per debridement was $3198 ($2856-3539), with mean total surgical payment per year of $17,966 ($11,673-24,259) prior to initiating bevacizumab. Mean payment on a single bevacizumab infusion visit was $6508 ($6063-6952). Mean total surgical and bevacizumab spending per year after bevacizumab initiation were $83,951 ($12,938-154,964).

Conclusions: Accounting for variations in the number of treatments per year with bevacizumab after initiation, healthcare spending after bevacizumab initiation is similar to spending on surgery alone for JoRRP in patients with severe disease.

Keywords: Cost analysis; Pediatric laryngology; Respiratory papillomatosis.