ArticleGerman medical science : GMS e-journal2003
Antiviral combination therapy with interferon/peginterferon plus ribavirin for patients with chronic hepatitis C in Germany: a health technology assessment commissioned by the German Agency for Health Technology Assessment.
Article in German medical science : GMS e-journal, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Causal evidence in health decision making: methodological approaches of causal inference and health decision science.German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2022Review
- Cost-effectiveness of Interferon-free therapy for Hepatitis C in Germany--an application of the efficiency frontier approach.BMC infectious diseases · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe purpose of this health technology assessment (HTA), commissioned by the German Agency for HTA at the German Federal Ministry of Health and Social Security, was to systematically review the evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of antiviral treatment (AVT) for initial chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and to apply these data in the context of the German health care system.
methodsA systematic literature search was conducted to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs), meta-analyses, and HTAs that evaluated initial AVT for CHC. A modified version of the German Hepatitis C Model (GEHMO)--a decision-analytic Markov model--was used to determine long-term morbidity, life expectancy, quality of life, costs and cost-effectiveness of different treatment strategies. Model parameters were derived from German databases, international RCTs, and a Cochrane Review.
resultsOverall, 9 RCTs, 2 HTA reports, 1 Cochrane review, and 2 meta-analyses examining medical effectiveness of antiviral combination therapy, as well as 7 economic evaluations, met the inclusion criteria. These studies indicate that combination therapy with peginterferon plus ribavirin produced the highest sustained virological response rates (54-61%), followed by interferon plus ribavirin with 38-54%, and interferon monotherapy with 11-21%. Based on international cost-effectiveness studies, interferon plus ribavirin is cost-effective compared to interferon monotherapy. No published articles were available regarding cost-effectiveness of peginterferon plus ribavirin. In our decision analysis, these findings were confirmed and the discounted incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for peginterferon plus ribavirin was euro 9,800 per quality-adjusted life-year gained compared to interferon monotherapy (as the next best non-dominated strategy). Sensitivity analyses showed robust results across a wide range of model parameters.
conclusionsThis HTA suggests that initial combination therapy prolongs life, improves quality of life, and is cost-effective in patients with CHC. Combination of peginterferon and ribavirin is the most effective and efficient treatment strategy among the examined options.
Indexed as
Identifiers
19675705PMC2703229W1897818543What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.