103P - NICE recommendations and ESMO-MCBS/ESCAT scores for solid tumour drugs

Background

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) develops recommendations for cancer therapeutics within the NHS by evaluating clinical evidence and cost-effectiveness. The ESMO-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS) serves as a standardised, objective instrument to evaluate and quantify the clinical benefits of oncology treatments. The ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets (ESCAT) provides a framework for assessing the clinical relevance and actionability of molecular targets identified through cancer genomics. This study looks at the NICE recommendation outcomes for solid tumour drugs and their corresponding ESMO-MCBS and ESCAT scores.

Methods

We reviewed NICE's solid cancer drug appraisals from the past five years, categorised as recommended, optimised, not recommended, or terminated approval. The corresponding ESMO-MCBS scores for each drug were identified, with numerical values assigned for metastatic settings and letter grades for curative contexts. Additionally, ESCAT scores were incorporated for drugs targeting specific genomic alterations. We look to assess the correspondance between ESMO-MCBS and ESCAT scores with the NICE recommendation outcomes.

Results

In the past five years, NICE has issued 131 recommendations for solid tumour drugs. Of these, 69 were categorised as recommended, 33 as optimised, 13 as not recommended, and 16 as terminated approvals. Of the 14 drugs used in curative settings, 12 received the highest ESMO-MCBS letter grade of A (indicating substantial benefit), while 2 were deemed to have no evaluable benefit. Among the 120 drugs used in metastatic settings, 6 received the highest ESMO-MCBS score of 5, 55 scored a 4, 43 scored a 3, 10 scored a 2, and 3 scored a 1. ESCAT scores were available for 49 drugs, with 33 achieving the top grading of I-A, 10 graded as I-B, and 6 as I-C.

Conclusions

We are conducting further assessments to evaluate correlation between ESMO assessment tools and NICE recommendation outcomes to ensure the decision-making processes employed by NICE are in alignment with evidence-based evaluation tools.

Editorial acknowledgement

Clinical trial identification

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.