Real-world healthcare resource utilization in patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma: differences between patients treated with first-line ibrutinib or bendamustine + rituximab

Abstract

Objective: This study evaluated the real-world healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and costs in patients diagnosed with an indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL) and treated with either first-line ibrutinib monotherapy (IbM) therapy or bendamustine plus rituximab combination therapy (BR).

Methods: Treatment-naïve iNHL patients in the IBM MarketScan Research Databases were identified based on the first prescription of either IbM or BR therapy between 02/01/2014 and 08/30/2017.

Results: A greater proportion of IbM patients (n = 207) had at least one inpatient admission (IP) or emergency room visit (ER), both all-cause and iNHL-related, than BR (n = 1337) patients. In addition, the mean number of IP admissions and ER visits was significantly higher in the IbM cohort. No differences in total costs were found. Outpatients costs were higher in IbM patients and medical costs were higher in BR patients.

Conclusions: These real-world findings highlight the importance of considering the healthcare resource utilization and the associated costs of iNHL patients which may be associated with their first-line therapy.

Keywords:

• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• ibrutinib
• bendamustine
• healthcare costs
• resource utilization

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was funded by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

GH and EZ are employees of Teva Pharmaceuticals. DI, KW, and SM are employees of IBM Watson Health, which received financial support for this study from Teva Pharmaceuticals. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

DI, GH, KW, and EZ were all involved in the conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of the data; SM was involved in the analysis and interpretation of the data. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jason Allaire, PhD of Generativity Solutions Group for his assistance with the editing of this paper.