Economic Analysis of Adjuvant Interferon Alfa-2b in High-Risk Melanoma Based on Projections From Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group 1684

clinical trial (E1684) prolonged relapse-free and total survival in high-risk rejected melanoma. However, the costs and toxicities of IFN are barriers to its widespread use. This study was undertaken to analyze the projected costs and long-term benefits of IFN by combining pro-spectively collected data on IFN actual dosage, time of recurrence, and survival with secondary data on long-term melanoma recurrence risks to project the cost-effec-tiveness of adjuvant IFN compared with observation. Patients and Methods: Two hypothetical cohorts of 50-year-old melanoma patients whose mean IFN dosage and clinical results were directly taken from El 1684 were includedd in the study. Melanoma recurrence risks beyond 5 years were derived from international databases. Mel-anoma recurrence care costs and quality-of-life adjust