OBJECTIVES: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in Russia, with incidence rate more than 456.6 per 100.000 women, with 70,569 new cases diagnosed in 2017, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is approximately 30% according to national databases. The main aim of this study was to develop an open, free online tool for budget impact analysis (BIA) to estimate costs for treatment MBC from the national health care perspective.

METHODS: An interactive, customizable free online calculator for estimating drug costs for Chemotherapy (CT), Endocrine (ECT) or Target therapy (TT) of MBC was developed. The web-based software is freely available at: http://breastcancersociety.ru/. Drug regimen therapy data were derived from national Clinical recommendations of the Russian Oncomammology Society (RAOM) for MBC for profiling patients groups (by types of MBC, HER-status). Unit costs for drugs were estimated from nationally published sources.

RESULTS: In the current version the user can enter their own data to calculate drug costs based on MBC subtypes (patients will consolidate into groups with similar profile) and provide BIA for different treatment strategy (CT vs ET vs TT). For example, the cost of CT with capecitabine (mean 6 cycles) per one person was 120,983 RUB (€1,657) versus 463,170 RUB (€6,345) for TT with trastuzumab (mean 18 weeks). This calculator can serve as an important tool for hospitals in the regional health system.

CONCLUSIONS: Drug cost calculator is a powerful reporting and analytics tool that could improve economic assessment processes for MBC in Russia and allows health plans and employers to calculate the estimated use and cost impact of new, and/or high cost drugs.