Background
cancer, digestive tract cancer, CRC
CANCER, MALIGNANT TUMOURS
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumours in China, ranking second in overall cancer incidence and first in digestive tract cancer [Additionally, more than half of CRC patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage (III—IV) [Pembrolizumab was the first PD-1 inhibitor approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in China to be adopted as a standard of care first-line treatment for patients with dMMR/MSI-H mCRC based on the data analysis results of a key global phase III clinical trial, namely, KEYNOTE-177 [Despite the exciting incremental benefit, the cost of pembrolizumab without national medical insurance is relatively high; thus, the value of this therapy relative to its benefit is unclear. Therefore, we built a partitioned survival model (PSM) to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab as a first-line regimen in patients with dMMR/MSI-H mCRC from the perspective of the Chinese health-care system with a lifetime horizon.