Amyloid-targeting therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), such as lecanemab, target and reduce brain β-amyloid plaques. To initiate therapy accurately, confirming the presence of brain β-amyloid plaques is necessary. This research investigated the added value and cost-effectiveness of F-flutemetamol positron emission tomography (PET) in the United States.
A cost-effectiveness model was developed to evaluate the differential diagnostic accuracy for AD and associated clinical and economic outcomes between F-flutemetamol PET imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing. The model simulates the impact of the diagnostic modality choice in a hypothetical patient cohort with mild cognitive impairment or suspected AD and aged 40 to 79 years for eligibility to receive Amyloid-targeting therapy.
The use of F-flutemetamol PET contributes an additional 0.02 discounted quality-adjusted life years compared with CSF (4.91 vs 4.89) with an incremental discounted cost of $1405. This translates to a cost of $73 872 per quality-adjusted life year gained.
Compared with CSF testing, F-flutemetamol PET is a cost-effective diagnostic modality for US payers.