Trends in survival and costs among US multiple myeloma patients.

Abstract

8046 Background: Survival among multiple myeloma (MM) patients has improved over time, but little is known about concurrent changes in healthcare costs. This study examined trends in both survival and healthcare costs over the same time periods in US MM patients. Methods: The MarketScan Commercial and Medicare claims dataset was used to identify 5199 adult patients diagnosed with MM from Jan. 2006 to Dec. 2014. Patients had no prior evidence of cancer, were continuously enrolled for >12 months prior to MM diagnosis, and were followed through the earliest event (death, end of enrollment, or end of the study period (9/30/2015)). Multivariate GLM and Cox proportional hazards models estimated healthcare costs and survival probabilities, respectively, for two time periods during which patients were diagnosed with MM (2006-2010 vs 2011-2014) while controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics. The recycled prediction method was used to calculate the incremental cost estimates between the time periods. Results: Patients diagnosed in 2011-2014 had a 35% lower risk of death compared to those diagnosed in 2006-2010 (HR [95% CI] = 0.65 [0.57-0.74]. Patients diagnosed in 2011-2014 had 18% (95% CI: 6-31%) higher all cause and 26% (95% CI: 6-50%) higher MM-related per patient per month costs compared to those diagnosed in 2006-2010 (Table). Conclusions: Among MM patients, survival has improved at a greater rate than the increase in healthcare costs. In addition to improvements in MM treatment, changes in overall disease management may have contributed to both the increased expenditures and survival improvements observed in this study. [Table: see text]