TY - JOUR
T1 - Survival Rates and Health Care Costs for Patients With Advanced Bladder Cancer Treated and Untreated With Chemotherapy
AU - Flannery, Kyle
AU - Cao, Xiting
AU - He, Jinghua
AU - Zhong, Yichen
AU - Shah, Amishi Y.
AU - Kamat, Ashish M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Anna Kaufman, MPH, in collaboration with ScribCo for medical writing assistance. Supported in part by Merck & Co Inc. The sponsor did not have any role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, in writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the report for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. and The Authors
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to estimate survival and health care costs for patients with stage IV bladder cancer. Approximately two thirds of patients were not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Patients who received chemotherapy had a longer median survival rate, fewer per-patient–per-month health care visits, and lower per-patient–per-month costs than patients not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Background: Systemic chemotherapy has long been the standard of care for advanced bladder cancer, but its cost implications are poorly understood. The objective of this analysis was to estimate survival and health care costs for patients with stage IV bladder cancer who did or did not receive chemotherapy. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare database with a new primary diagnosis of stage IV bladder cancer between January 2007 and December 2011. Survival and health care visits and costs following the date of diagnosis were determined for treated and untreated patients. Costs were expressed in 2016 US dollars. Results: A total of 1215 patients were diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer, of whom 411 (33.8%) were treated with chemotherapy and 804 (66.2%) were untreated. Median overall survival was 10 months longer for treated than for untreated patients: 13.2 (95% confidence interval, 12.3-14.1) months versus 3.2 (95% confidence interval, 3.0-3.5) months. Treated patients had fewer per-patient–per-month (PPPM) health care visits than untreated patients (7.5 vs. 10.2, P <.01) and lower total PPPM health care costs ($10,707 vs. $18,935). Overall mean total lifetime costs were greater for treated than for untreated patients ($139,893 vs. $66,829, P <.05), which was driven by an approximate 4-fold increase in life expectancy for the treated patients. Conclusion: Approximately two thirds of patients diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer were not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Increasing the percentage of treated patients in this population could potentially extend overall survival while simultaneously lowering PPPM costs.
AB - The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to estimate survival and health care costs for patients with stage IV bladder cancer. Approximately two thirds of patients were not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Patients who received chemotherapy had a longer median survival rate, fewer per-patient–per-month health care visits, and lower per-patient–per-month costs than patients not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Background: Systemic chemotherapy has long been the standard of care for advanced bladder cancer, but its cost implications are poorly understood. The objective of this analysis was to estimate survival and health care costs for patients with stage IV bladder cancer who did or did not receive chemotherapy. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results–Medicare database with a new primary diagnosis of stage IV bladder cancer between January 2007 and December 2011. Survival and health care visits and costs following the date of diagnosis were determined for treated and untreated patients. Costs were expressed in 2016 US dollars. Results: A total of 1215 patients were diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer, of whom 411 (33.8%) were treated with chemotherapy and 804 (66.2%) were untreated. Median overall survival was 10 months longer for treated than for untreated patients: 13.2 (95% confidence interval, 12.3-14.1) months versus 3.2 (95% confidence interval, 3.0-3.5) months. Treated patients had fewer per-patient–per-month (PPPM) health care visits than untreated patients (7.5 vs. 10.2, P <.01) and lower total PPPM health care costs ($10,707 vs. $18,935). Overall mean total lifetime costs were greater for treated than for untreated patients ($139,893 vs. $66,829, P <.05), which was driven by an approximate 4-fold increase in life expectancy for the treated patients. Conclusion: Approximately two thirds of patients diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer were not treated with systemic chemotherapy. Increasing the percentage of treated patients in this population could potentially extend overall survival while simultaneously lowering PPPM costs.
KW - Drug therapy
KW - Resources/economics/utilization
KW - SEER Program
KW - Treatment outcome
KW - Urinary bladder cancer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046753782&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85046753782&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.clgc.2018.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.clgc.2018.03.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 29735397
AN - SCOPUS:85046753782
SN - 1558-7673
VL - 16
SP - e909-e917
JO - Clinical Genitourinary Cancer
JF - Clinical Genitourinary Cancer
IS - 4
ER -