Abstract
Aim: Retrospectively assessed treatment patterns and clinical and economic outcomes in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) patients receiving recommended first-line regimens. Materials & methods: MCC patients newly treated with either immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or chemotherapies (CTs) were selected from the Veterans Health Administration database (2013-2018); 74 patients (ICIs: 20 and CTs: 54) were selected. Results: Median duration of therapy was 300 days for ICIs and 91 days for CTs. Time to next treatment was 245 and 184 days, respectively. Mean total (per patient per month) costs were $15,306 (ICIs) and $10,957 (CTs), of which 51% and 86%, respectively, were non-MCC therapy-related costs. Conclusion: Despite higher costs, utilization of ICIs in first-line MCC shows clinical advantages over CTs in the real world.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2521-2536 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Future Oncology |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 31 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2020 |
Funding
This study was sponsored by EMD Serono, Inc. (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100009945); a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, It is part of an alliance between EMD Serono, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc. (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004319). S Chandra is an employee of Northwestern Medicine; M Kearney is an employee of Merck KGaA. Y Zheng, T Yu and H Phatak are employees of EMD Serono, Inc. (a business of Merck KGaA). S Pandya and L Wang are employees of STATinMED Research, which is a paid consultant to Pfizer, Inc. and EMD Serono, Inc. R Kim is an employee of Pfizer, Inc. Data from this study were previously presented in poster format at ASCO-SITC Clinical Immune-Oncology Symposium 2019 and as an abstract at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. Statistical programming and medical writing assistance were provided by Y Cao and C Dieyi of STATinMED Research, respectively. Editorial support was provided by M Moriarty, also of STATinMED Research.
Keywords
- Duration of treatment
- Health care resource utilization
- Immune checkpoint inhibitors
- Merkel cell carcinoma
- Recommended chemotherapy
- Survival
- Time to next treatment
- Veterans Health Administration
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
