Cost-Benefit Analysis Reveals Upright Cancer Treatment Solution Could Deliver Widespread Benefits
New report backs Leo Cancer Care’s upright proton beam therapy system and shows it may help cancer patients and the NHS by reducing waiting list backlogs
An in-depth cost-benefit analysis into a groundbreaking upright solution to deliver Proton Beam Therapy to treat cancer suggests the approach could have significant advantages for patients and the National Health Service (NHS).
An evaluation undertaken by Unity Insights in conjunction with Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSS AHSN) - which is a body working to transform lives through innovation - focused on Leo Cancer Care’s Marie™ upright Proton Therapy solution.
The system, which takes up a fraction of the space and costs significantly less than traditional gantry installations, delivers therapy to patients while supported in an upright position by keeping the radiation beam fixed and slowly rotating the patient.
The Unity Insights evaluation* – conducted with the NHS, KSS AHSN and Leo Cancer Care – aimed to create a cost-benefit analysis and budget impact model to identify whether the Marie™ cancer treatment solution was more cost-effective than existing NHS Proton Therapy equipment.
Patient backlog
Proton Therapy has clear benefits for patients because it is precisely targeted and results in less beam exposure to healthy tissue around tumours compared to photon therapy, which is a more commonly used radiotherapy treatment.
The NHS recently opened Proton Therapy cancer treatment centres in Manchester and London at a cost of £250m with the capability to treat approximately one per cent of the UK cancer population. However, general clinical guidelines indicate that PBT would offer significant benefits for 10% of all future radiotherapy treatments.
The report stated: ‘Currently, a backlog of patients awaiting cancer treatment due to the coronavirus pandemic resulted in prioritising patients by the severity of their cancer. Identifying methods of reducing patient waiting times, therefore, is essential.’
Key results
Key results from the Unity Insights study show that:
As radiotherapy treatment is costly and time consuming, use of Marie™ could lower the cost and waiting list backlog in the NHS;
Cost-benefit analysis calculated that the return on investment (ROI) for the NHS equipment averaged at £0.61 for every £1 spent, while the ROI for Leo Cancer Care averaged at £0.91 for every £1 spent between years two and 20.
‘In this case, Leo Cancer Care is likely to yield a greater ROI compared to existing NHS machines,’ it stated.
These results, say Leo, help imagine a future where proton therapy could be considered side by side with photon therapy in the NHS. It believes there is a clear cost reduction in treating with proton therapy by reducing secondary cancer malignancies.
However, proton therapy is currently considered inaccessible to the majority of patients due to the size and high capital costs of traditional installations and the technology.
Lower costs
The document also made recommendations for further research on whether Marie™ improves the quality of cancer treatment and if further benefits could be identified, such as with patient throughput.
It also proposed a cost-benefit analysis to determine the impact of other Leo Cancer Care technology within the NHS, such as the Ruby™ solution which administers photon therapy.
In conclusion, the Unity Insights report stated: ‘Overall, the findings presented throughout this evaluation suggest that Leo Cancer Care’s machines yield lower costs and are easier to construct compared to existing NHS machinery.
‘Further research may be conducted into PBT and Leo Cancer Care to provide the NHS with the reassurance that Leo Cancer Care is a cost-effective, safe machine that can be used to eradicate the existing patient backlog.’
Smaller footprint
The report noted that traditional particle therapy systems require large buildings to house equipment weighing up to 600 tonnes with 360 degrees of shielding, while the Marie™ system is compact enough to be fitted within an existing hospital infrastructure and, as a consequence, could provide considerable financial savings in facility construction alone.
Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care, welcomed the findings from the Unity Insights study.
“We have long believed that our solutions are cost-effective and also have a smaller footprint than current proton beam therapy solutions. We are delighted that Unity Insights came to the same conclusion.
We believe that our systems can offer the NHS significant benefits, not only in more cost-effective use of resources but also in helping cut the severe cancer care backlogs it is currently facing.
The main takeaway for me from this report is that, even with an incredibly conservative financial model for the Leo technology, we are still seeing a 50% improvement in the ROI to the NHS. I expect that the real numbers will be much more favourable.
These numbers are already close to showing that the expected savings due to a reduction in secondary malignancies as a result of the use of proton therapy compared to conventional radiation therapy will outweigh the higher costs associated with proton therapy – that is a huge result.”
Saving lives
While Proton Therapy is seen as an expensive cancer treatment solution, the benefits to patients remain clear with its ability to see a higher dose of radiation delivered to the tumour, but less radiation to nearby healthy cells.
“Providing Proton Therapy systems to the NHS that are easier to install, cost less, and take up less space, can offer significant benefits to the NHS, and in turn, to the cancer patients it treats.
This study also highlights the dedication from KSS AHSN and Unity Insights to support innovation in the UK. Start-ups, such as ours, really value their ongoing support” Added Towe
A core aim of the NHS Long Term Plan (2019) is to save thousands more cancer patients’ lives by implementing improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment via more precise and safer therapies, including advanced radiotherapy techniques such as PBT.
The Leo Cancer Care products are not commercially available and patients will not be treated until the required regulatory approvals have been achieved.
Request and read the report
Read the Unity Insights case study and abstract. You can also request to download the report here too.