Medical technology excellence award
A device that increases survival rates, decreases serious adverse events and improves quality of life for cancer patients, has won the inaugural 2007 Kerrin Rennie Award for Excellence in Medical Technology.
The award was presented to the DC Bead (distributed by Device Technologies), a drug delivery system for the treatment of some cancers in the colon and rectum and some tumours in the bile duct.
The DC Bead provides patients with a method that ensures precise delivery of chemotherapy directly to the tumour site, as opposed to the whole human system, thereby reducing drug-related toxicity and side effects and increasing efficacy of the treatment.
Other significant benefits in treating patients with the DC Bead include a 75% reduction in serious adverse events, 68% improved tumour response rate and an increase in 12 and 24 month survival rates.
The DC Bead costs $1,950 per course. The DC Bead group involved in the study underwent a total of 192 courses over three years at a combined cost of $374,400, which divided by the 53 extra life years of the DC Bead group, means the cost per extra life year works out at $7,064.
As a comparison, the government currently uses up to $50,000 to provide an extra quality adjusted year of life for patients on pharmaceutical treatment.
