Economic impact of multigene panel testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer

Summary

Healthcare utilization and costs were compared following 25-gene panel or single syndrome testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Groups were determined by test type and result (positive, negative, variant of uncertain significance).

There were no differences in total unadjusted healthcare costs between the panel (USD$14,425) and single syndrome (USD$14,384) groups. Among variant of uncertain significance patients in the panel and single syndrome groups, mean all-cause costs were USD$14,404 versus USD$20,607 (p = 0.361) and mean risk-reduction/early detection-specific costs were USD$718 versus USD$679 (p = 0.890), respectively. Adjusted medical costs were not significantly different between panel and single syndrome cohorts. Healthcare utilization and costs were comparable between the single syndrome and panel tests overall and for patients with variant of uncertain significance.