Data access has been approved for a team at BC Cancer to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug Bevacizumab (Avastin) in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.
PopData will link data from BC Cancer with BC Ministry of Health and BC Vital Statistics data for the project.
“Drug funding recommendations in Canada have long been informed by controlled clinical trial data and predictive modeling. The price that the British Columbia government agrees to reimburse for a particular drug is based on estimates of patient benefit”, says Dr. Stuart Peacock, Co-Director of the Canadian Centre of Applied Research in Cancer Control (ARCC) and Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survivorship at Simon Fraser University. “After drugs are implemented, however, we accumulate real world data on all patients who receive the drug, which provides much more reliable information on how the drug actually performs.”
The population-based study will compare real world outcomes of Bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer with other forms of treatment. The study will measure and assess; treatment utilization and budget impact, effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness.
The results of study will be used to inform policies that maximize health benefits, minimize harm, re-allocate spending from low to high value settings, and to renegotiate drug prices.
The project, which is funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, is one of a number being carried out under ARCC’s Real World Evidence (RWE) program. The program aims to ensure that patients are deriving the promised benefits from a particular drug and that current spending on that drug is an appropriate use of resources.
