The cost effectiveness of intensity-modulated radiation therapy and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancers

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky

Study compares cost effectiveness of intensity-modulated radiotherapy versus three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for head and neck cancer in east of Iran. A Markov model with six health states (xerostomia and dysphagia) estimates incremental cost-effectiveness from a societal perspective. Costs and quality of life are collected from 97 respondents using a checklist and EuroQol-5Dimension questionnaire, with deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses using TreeAge software. Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy yields higher quality-adjusted life years and lower costs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Background on head and neck cancers

Radiotherapy technologies (2D-RT, 3D-CRT, IMRT)

Varmaghani et al. Radiation Oncology (2023) 18:138 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-023-02327-z](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-023-02327-z) Radiation Oncology RESEARCH Open Access The cost effectiveness of intensity-modulated radiation therapy and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancers Mehdi Varmaghani 1, Malihe Amiri2, Hossein Ebrahimpour2, Roham Salek3 and Javad Javan-Noughabi2* Abstract Purpose Intensity-modulated radiotherapy is developed as a replacement for 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy. Considering the difference in costs and effectiveness of these interventions, the aim of this study was to compare the cost effectiveness of intensity-modulated radiation therapy and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer in east of Iran. Methods A Markov model including six states based on xerostomia and dysphagia was developed to estimate the incremental cost effectiveness ratio from the perspective of societal. Cost and quality of life data were collected from 97 respondents via a checklist and EuroQol-5Dimension questionnaire. The robustness of results was examined by deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. All analysis were conducted with Treeage software. Results The results of this study showed that the cost and quality adjusted life years for 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy were 9209.76 and 3.63 respectively. However, the cost and quality adjusted life years for intensitymodulated radiotherapy were 12562.90 and 3.17 respectively. Therefore, 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy produced 0.45 more quality adjusted life years than intensity-modulated radiotherapy and saved $3353. According to the incremental cost effectiveness ratio, 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy as compared to intensitymodulated radiotherapy saved $7367.27 per quality adjusted life years. These results confirmed by sensitivity analysis. Conclusion This study concluded that in the treatment of head and neck cancer, the 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy method appears to be cost-effective when compared with intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Keywords Cost-effectiveness analysis, Radiotherapy, Conformal, Radiotherapy, intensity-modulated, Head and Neck Neoplasms *Correspondence: Javad Javan-Noughabi [javadjavan.n@gmail.com](javadjavan.n@gmail.com); [javannj@mums.ac.ir](javannj@mums.ac.ir) 1Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran 2Department of Health Economics and Management Sciences, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Daneshgah st. between 16-18, Mashhad, Iran 3Radiotherapy and Oncology Department, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ([http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Varmaghani

FAQs

What is the study’s main goal?

To compare the cost effectiveness of intensity-modulated radiation therapy with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for head and neck cancer in east of Iran.

How did the researchers estimate cost effectiveness?

They built a Markov model with six states based on xerostomia and dysphagia and calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio from a societal perspective.

What do the results indicate about 3D-CRT versus IMRT?

3D-CRT produced more quality-adjusted life years and saved money, with sensitivity analyses confirming the findings.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky