Health Economics Evaluation of Percutaneous Vertebroplasty Compared to Radiation Therapy in Patients With Painful Spine Metastases.

Bone is the most common site for metastasis. In breast and prostate cancers, 70% of patients dying of their cancer have evidence of metastatic bone disease \[Coleman, 2006\]. Depending on their localization, bone metastases can have debilitating consequences resulting in considerable morbidity and complex demands on health care resources. Bone spine metastases are the most frequent site observed in patients with cancer of the lung, prostate, breast and hemopoetic organs. The occurrence of spinal metastases in patients with advanced cancer can cause significant morbidity, with pain and/or neurological deficit adversely affecting the patients' quality of life. Interventional radiology takes a large place in the treatment of bone metastases. Currently, vertebroplasty appears as the most satisfactory technique for stabilization of spine metastases offering a significant improvement of the quality of life. The analgesic effect is achieved very rapidly, i.e. usually within 24 hours post-procedure. Based on several publications, around 90% of patients reported rapid pain relief following vertebroplasty with 60 to 70% of complete pain relief \[Mendel, 2009\]. Radiotherapy also plays a very important role in the palliative treatment of the metastatic bone. Radiotherapy is effective and well tolerated. A reduction of the pain is noticed for 70 to 80 % of the patients and begins one or two weeks after the treatment. In all, the radiotherapy increases the quality of life of the patients and can reduce the intake of analgesics \[Lutz, 2011\]. In a lot of cases, vertebroplasty or radiotherapy can both be performed for a same painful patient (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) approved the use of vertebroplasty for patients with spinal metastases in November 2008). Radiotherapy remains the gold-standard treatment. However, vertebroplasty could be less costly and more effective compare to radiotherapy. In fact, the superiority of vertebroplasty has been demonstrated at least in the acute post-therapeutic period with (i) more rapid autonomy recovery, (ii) reduction of antalgic intakes, and potentially less side-effects.