Mauna Kea Technologies Announces a New Publication Demonstrating the Economic Benefit of Cellvizio® for Pancreatic Cyst Management
Proven diagnostic accuracy of Cellvizio allows for successful downstaging of non-mucinous lesions and prevention of unnecessary surgeries, resulting in significant healthcare cost savings
Mauna Kea Technologies today announces a new peer-reviewed publication showing the significant healthcare cost savings of using Cellvizio® as an adjunct to the standard of care for the management of pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs).
The conventional management of PCLs involves a diagnostic workup that can be prone to errors with classifying mucinous versus non-mucinous cysts, thereby placing patients in an incorrect therapeutic or surveillance program, and potentially resulting in an unnecessary surgery on a benign cyst. The study, entitled “Cost-Benefit Analysis and Resource Implications of Endoscopy Ultrasound-guided Confocal Endomicroscopy in Pancreas Cysts” and published in Techniques and Innovations in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (TIGE) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tige.2021.10.002), aims to assess the impact of the proven diagnostic accuracy of EUS-guided needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (EUS-nCLE) for PCLs on healthcare expenditure when added to the standard of care (SOC) management.
Via a post-hoc analysis of 93 patients enrolled in the INDEX study (NCT02516488), the authors conclude that the diagnostic accuracy of EUS-nCLE resulted in the successful downstaging from mucinous to non-mucinous of 12% of patients, sparing them an unnecessary surgery. As a result, the authors underscored that, “EUS-nCLE is potentially cost-beneficial in the management of PCLs by preventing at least one unnecessary pancreatic surgery for every ten subjects undergoing evaluation by current practices.” In addition, EUS-nCLE was responsible for the successful upstaging of 1 patient, allowing earlier and more precise intervention compared to a long-term surveillance program. Across all concordant and discordant diagnoses, the addition of Cellvizio led to a fully burdened net savings of $442,438 for this cohort, or approximately $4,757 per patient.
The authors further concluded that, “when combined with favorable data regarding higher diagnostic accuracy, potential to risk stratify the most common precancerous cystic neoplasms, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), and no higher-than-expected risk of postprocedural adverse events, the current economic analysis favors the application of EUS-nCLE in diagnostic algorithms.”
“As we recognize Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and the need to provide better diagnostic tools for physicians and their patients for the management of pancreatic cysts, it is important that we also understand the cost burden on the healthcare system of accurately classifying these lesions” said Robert L. Gershon, Chief Executive Officer of Mauna Kea Technologies. “This additional evidence demonstrates that real-time in vivo cellular imaging with Cellvizio has a material impact on patient management while providing significant healthcare cost savings. We look forward to broadening the access to Cellvizio in PCL centers to meet this critical clinical and economic need.”
