{
  "id": 184655,
  "title": "Cost-effectiveness of pirfenidone for patients with cancer and grade 2 or grade 3 radiation-induced lung injury: A modeling study",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/05/cost-effectiveness-of-pirfenidone-for-patients-with-cancer-and-grade",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-05T14:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PLOS Medicine",
    "slug": "plos-medicine",
    "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004817"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Research conducted by Qiu-Yi Pan and colleagues investigates the cost-effectiveness of pirfenidone in treating grade 2 or 3 radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) in cancer patients. The study builds upon a phase II randomized clinical trial, demonstrating pirfenidone's safety and efficacy in managing RILI.\n\nA Markov model, constructed using data from the trial (NCT03902509), simulates the treatment's cost-effectiveness over a 24-week period, with outcomes measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The analysis is discounted at a 3% annual rate. Costs and health outcomes are compared between pirfenidone plus glucocorticoids and glucocorticoids alone.\n\nThe results indicate that adding pirfenidone to glucocorticoids yields an additional 0.028 QALYs at a cost of $590 per treatment cycle, resulting in an ICER of $20,956 per QALY. This ICER falls well below the commonly accepted threshold of $100,000 per QALY, suggesting the strategy is cost-effective. Sensitivity analyses reveal that acute pulmonary exacerbation-free survival and the likelihood of non-response to glucocorticoids are key factors affecting the ICER.\n\nThe probabilistic sensitivity analysis indicates a 99.98% probability that pirfenidone plus glucocorticoids are cost-effective up to a WTP threshold of $100,000 per QALY. However, the study acknowledges limitations, such as relying on phase II trial data with a small sample size and follow-up. An ongoing phase III trial will further substantiate these findings.\n\nIn conclusion, for patients with grade 2 or 3 RILI, pirfenidone combined with glucocorticoids proves to be a cost-effective treatment option, offering a viable clinical management strategy for this condition.",
  "summary": "by Qiu-Yi Pan, Ya-Xue Wang, Xue-Ying Tang, Zan Hou, Bai-Qiang Dong, Qi-Wen Li, Bao-Qing Chen, Shou-Min Bai, Chen-Fei Wu, Ming Chen Background The cost-effective treatment strategy for radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) remains unclear. Our recent phase II randomized clinical trial has proved pirfenidone to be safe and effective for grade 2 or 3 RILI. Here, we aim to assess the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}