Comparison of Alternative Outcome Measures in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Three Applications Within Oncology

Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) are the predominant health benefit measure used in health technology assessment. In response to legal and policy constraints on the use of QALYs in some jurisdictions, alternative outcome measures, such as equal value life-years and health years in total, have been proposed. However, there is limited illustration of how these alternative measures behave when applied to common health economic model structures.

Three stylized oncology economic models, reflecting typical features of published cost-effectiveness analyses, were used to examine how alternative outcome measures re-express identical underlying survival and health-related quality-of-life inputs. Outcomes based on QALYs were compared with those based on life-years, equal value life-years, and health years in total for renal cell carcinoma, chronic myeloid leukemia, and non-small cell lung cancer.

Incremental health years in total were consistently larger than incremental QALYs (13-46% higher). The relationship between life-years and QALYs varied across indications (from 63% lower to 43% higher).

When applied to identical model inputs, alternative outcome measures primarily re-express existing information rather than incorporate additional dimensions of health benefit. Differences relative to QALYs reflect alternative weighting of survival and health-related quality-of-life effects and depend on the balance between these components. These findings highlight the need for careful interpretation of alternative measures when used alongside QALYs in economic evaluation.