OBJECTIVES: This analysis estimated the budget impact of the inclusion of Pertuzumab as adjuvant therapy for the treatment of early HER2 positive breast cancer in a model hospital in Ecuador.

METHODS: A budget impact analysis was chosen in a specialties hospital in Ecuador, considering the inclusion of Pertuzumab in combination with Trastuzumab and chemotherapy versus treatment currently used in the oncology service. The number of patients estimated to receive this therapy is based on statistical data from the last 2 years, exclusively presenting high risk of recurrence (positive nodules or negative receptors). There are no included the costs of diagnosis and control of the disease, as well as the previous medicine, since both treatment groups require the same amount of resources for their integral management. All costs were estimated in $ USA, and the prices of medicines were taken from official databases in Ecuador.

RESULTS: In the hypothetical case of those patients with high risk of recurrence, and taking into account the clinical data of the study Aphinity, which shows that the survival rate is free of invasive disease at 3 years, was 92.0% in the Pertuzumab group, compared with 90.2% in the placebo group (HR: 0.77; 95%, 0.62 to 0.96, p= 0.02) the additional budget for the hospital is only 1% compared to what is currently invested with the standard treatment for the management of this pathology.

CONCLUSIONS: It is estimated that adding Pertuzumab to standard treatment of high risk early HER2 positive breast cancer, in addition to reducing the probability of recurrence of the disease by approximately 20%, according to clinical study data, would represent a modest investment for the payer, considering the potential saving in further investment in later lines of treatments, and the increase in prognosis and quality of life of patients.