[A Report on Health Resource Use in Internal Radiation Therapy Using ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-TATE]

Internal radiation therapy using lutetium-177(¹⁷⁷Lu)-DOTA-TATE injection will be applied in actual clinical practice soon. However, the NHI medical technical fee for the use of ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-TATE injection has not yet been set. The Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine surveyed health resource use in internal radiation therapy using ¹⁷⁷Lu via questionnaires sent to medical institutions that have used ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-TATE injection. Results showed that the necessary cost per patient is 1,912,404 JPY, based on the Draft Proposal for Medical Examination Value (Ver. 7.2) of the Japanese Health Insurance Federation for Surgery. ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-TATE injection is supposed to be administered 4 times to each patient at 8-week intervals, and the fee per treatment was calculated to be 478,101 JPY. The appropriate NHI medical technical fee is thus considered to be 47,810 points per patient per treatment, which can be claimed 4 times per patient. In addition, it costs 649,030 JPY per patient to take special measures to make the hospital room similar to the radiation therapy room. The cost other than the basic hospitalization fee per day was calculated to be 81,129 JPY. The appropriate additional points for NHI basic hospitalization fee is thus considered to be 8,113 points per patient per day.