Seminar: Using clinical registries to improve outcomes for future patients
As part of the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research (UMMCR) seminar series, Dr Koen Degeling gave a presentation about the challenges for estimating health and economic outcomes of oncology care pathways and how real-world data from clinical registries can be used to address these challenges.
Traditional clinical trials often do not provide all evidence required to appropriately model the complex dynamics of today’s clinical pathways in which multiple treatment options can be combined throughout different lines. Since clinical registries typically capture data on different treatments throughout the whole pathway, they allow modellers to better account for downstream health and economic effects.
That considering the whole clinical pathway rather than a specific line of treatment in health economic analyses is important, was demonstrated by a methodological review of the Cancer Health Services Research team together with local and international collaborators. This review showed that health economic analyses of systemic therapies for metastatic colorectal cancer have adopted varied approaches and model structures, mostly focussing on first-line treatment only, which has resulted in substantial uncertainty about the cost-effectiveness of treatment options for this disease. More information on this review can be found on the UMMCR website.
Dr Degeling’s seminar demonstrated of how real-world data from clinical registries can be used to appropriately model complex clinical pathways. He presented results from a study in collaboration with the Personalised Oncology Division of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, using data from the Treatment of Recurrent and Advanced Colorectal Cancer (TRACC) registry was to estimate the real-world cost-effectiveness of systemic therapies for metastatic colorectal cancer.
The seminar concluded by presenting the results of a study using the same TRACC data to explore the feasibility of personalized simulation models to inform treatment decisions in metastatic colorectal cancer. This study showed such models may support treatment decisions by providing personalized estimates of treatment benefits and risks.
The seminar has been recorded and is publicly available on the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research website.