A $260 million trial aimed at determining the effects of combined hormone therapy (cHT) as a prevention strategy for individuals with cardiovascular disease (CVD) has resulted in a net economic gain of $37.1 billion, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
When all was said and done the trial uncovered that individuals using cHT as a prevention strategy did not exhibit a reduced risk of CVD. In fact, cHT users were found to have a increased risk for complications like myocardial infarction, stroke, venous thromboembolism and breast cancer.
At the time of the study 5.5 million women were using CHT to combat heart disease. After the results were published cHT use dropped 50 percent in the first year and 5-10 percent each subsequent year as the findings were adopted by large health organizations.
Huge Savings
To determine the economic return of the study, researchers analyzed several factors and subtracted the total cost from the projected savings. Researchers believe with a 95 percent confidence interval that the project had a net economic return between $23.1 billion and $51.2 billion. They used the median of $31.7 billion as a basis for their claim.
The biggest savings came from:
• 4.3 million fewer patients paying for cHT treatment ($26.2 billion)
• 126,000 fewer projected cases of breast cancer ($4.5 billion)
• 76,000 fewer cases of CVD ($2.2 billion)
Dr. Milton Weinstein, professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Medicine, said the results were astounding.
“The result of the trial was unexpected and, in a way, kind of lucky,” Dr. Weinstein said. “This one happened to be a big winner. They put their money on double zero, and it came up, and it was a great win for the American people, if not the world.”
Dr. Silverman comments
While I don’t think the results should be so closely compared to betting all your money on a single number in Roulette, this was surely a hugely expensive trial that was able to produce some incredible results.
I commend the authors for their work and hope to see similar studies on related treatments in the near future.