The economic burden to payers of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma during the treatment period by line of therapy

Abstract

We retrospectively analyzed treatment patterns and healthcare costs among patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) during each line of therapy (LOT) using data from the IBM^® MarketScan^® Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases from January 2011 to May 2017. Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of DLBCL, ≥12 months of disease-free continuous enrollment prediagnosis, and ≥1 month of postdiagnosis follow-up. Of 2066 eligible patients receiving first-line treatment, 17% (n = 340) received second-line treatment; of these, 23% (n = 77) received third-line treatment. Mean healthcare expenditures (treatment duration) for first, second, and third LOTs were $111,314 (124.5 days), $88,472 (80.8 days), and $103,365 (70.9 days), respectively. When adjusted to 30-day period costs, first, second, and third LOT healthcare expenditures increased to $26,825, $32,857, and $43,854, respectively. Patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory DLBCL incur a significant cost burden (for payers), and such costs increase as patients proceed through subsequent LOTs.

Keywords:

• DLBCL
• economic burden
• line of therapy
• treatment costs
• treatment patterns

Disclosure statement

JT, DM, and MB are employees of IBM Watson Health, which received funding from Juno Therapeutics, a Celgene company (before the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb), to execute this study.

JG is an employee of Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company, and may own stock in Bristol-Myers Squibb.

MG and SS are employees of BluePath Solutions, which received funding from Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company, to conduct the data analyses.

KCC was an employee of Juno Therapeutics, a Celgene company, at the time the analyses were conducted (before the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb) and may own stock in Bristol-Myers Squibb.

RTM has served as a consultant to Athersys, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics, Incyte Corporation, Juno Therapeutics, Kite Pharma, and Novartis, and shares a patent with Athersys, Inc., managed by Oregon Health & Science University.

Data availability statement

Data requests may be submitted to Celgene at www.CelgeneClinicalDataSharing.com and must include a description of the research proposal.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company. Editorial assistance was provided by The Lockwood Group and funded by Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company.

This work was supported by Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company. Editorial assistance was provided by The Lockwood Group and funded by Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company.