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Assessment of Appropriateness of Criteria for Insurance Coverage on Systemic Therapy used in Renal Cell Carcinoma
Korean J Clin Pharm 2011;21(4):319-331
Published online December 30, 2011
© 2011 Korean College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Jeong Yeon Kim, Eun Ji Park, Min kyung Bae, and Jeong-Hyun Yoon

College of Pharmacy, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea
This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate current criteria for insurance coverage by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) on the systemic therapy used in the treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), by reviewing all available clinical evidences including a variety of clinical practice guidelines. Methods: We searched clinical databases and collected data from published phase 1 through 3 randomized clinical trials on all systemic therapies used in RCC, including novel targeted therapies. Additionally, current clinical practice guidelines on the management of kidney cancer or RCC were reviewed. Based on the collected data we evaluated the appropriateness of the HIRA criteria for insurance coverage on the systemic therapy of RCC whether they are evidence-based and up to date. Results: On the basis of the collected data we concluded that there was a need for a revision in HIRA criteria for systemic therapy of RCC. Despite recent emerging therapeutic advances and changes in therapeutic strategies of management of RCC, some of anticancer regimens were inappropriately listed even though they were not proven to provide efficacy or safety superior to those of other therapies. We thus proposed an updated recommendation based on current clinical evidences. Conclusion: Systemic therapy of RCC is being rapidly changed with the advancement of understanding of the molecular biology of cancer. Consequently newly developed targeted therapies are becoming the standard therapy in the management of medically or surgically unresectable advanced or metastatic RCC. To provide effective and safe therapy to patients with RCC, the criteria for insurance coverage should be made carefully taking into consideration of most up-todate and high-quality clinical evidences, and should be continuously reviewed so as to reflect evidence-based clinical practice.
Keywords : renal cell carcinoma, Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy


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