Preferences and utilities for the health states in the treatment of neck in oral cancers.

PURPOSE: The present study is aimed at providing a direct estimation of health utility values in health states associated with early-stage oral cavity cancer, emphasizing the management of the neck.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional, observational study that employed preference elicitation methods to estimate health utility values using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and time trade-off (TTO) techniques. Clinical scenario vignettes were used to present health states to experts and healthy participants (HPs).

RESULTS

Sentinel node biopsy guided neck dissection had the highest utility scores among the experts (VAS, 0.764; TTO, 0.934) and HPs (VAS, 0.728; TTO, 0.921). Selective neck dissection with adjuvant treatment had the lowest utility scores for experts (VAS, 0.519; TTO, 0.825) and HPs (VAS, 0.552; TTO, 0.789).

CONCLUSIONS

HU values derived by TTO method were higher in all scenarios than the VAS estimates. The HUs showed a downward trend in the recurrences and complications. This is the first study to apply vignette-based valuation of health utilities in early oral cancer, enhancing the accuracy and relevance of future economic evaluations.