The costs per patient per month associated with novel CD-targeting therapies for relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were much higher compared with other agents, according to real-world retrospective data presented at the EHA 2022 Hybrid Congress.
Additionally, less than 15% of Medicare patients with relapsed/refractory ALL received any anticancer drug treatment at all, according to Alexander Russell-Smith, of Pfizer R&D UK Ltd in the United Kingdom, who presented a retrospective study that compared characteristics, health care utilization, and costs associated with inotuzumab ozogamicin, blinatumomab, or other agents in patients with relapsed/refractory ALL.
Using Medicare enrollment and claims, the researchers looked at data from 2306 patients who initiated an ALL treatment from January 2017 to June 2019 (1329 qualified for inclusion in the study). Of the less than 15% of Medicare beneficiaries with relapsed/refractory ALL who received anticancer drug treatment, 20% received a novel CD-targeting therapy (4% received inotuzumab ozogamicin and 16% received blinatumomab).
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The mean age for patients who received the novel therapies was 62 years, and the mean age for patients who received other agents was 66 years.
Patients treated with inotuzumab ozogamicin had a higher prevalence of congestive heart disease (35%), pulmonary disease (31%), and renal disease (38%) compared with patients who received blinatumomab (19%, 25%, and 19%, respectively) or other agents (23%, 30%, 21%; respectively).
Patients treated with inotuzumab ozogamicin also had greater hospital and emergency department utilization. However, prevalence of diabetes was lower for inotuzumab compared with blinatumomab and other agents.
The duration of follow-up for each group varied. Inotuzumab had a follow-up duration of 8.0 months, blinatumomab was 12.8 months, and other agents were 17.8 months. During this follow-up time, a larger proportion of patients receiving blinatumomab were hospitalized (98.1%), compared with inotuzumab ozogamicin (85.5%) or other agents (79%).
Additionally, patients receiving blinatumomab had a higher per patient per month rate of all-cause hospital stays compared with the other 2 groups. The length of stay was 9.3 days for blinatumomab, 6.0 days for inotuzumab, and 3.9 days for other agents.
The mean total cost of care was $65,437 for blinatumomab, $55,995 for inotuzumab, and $17,520 for other agents. According to the researchers, these figures were primarily driven by costs of hospitalizations.
Compared with blinatumomab, costs for inotuzumab ozogamicin were 14% lower, and costs for other agents were 73% lower.
Disclosures: This research was supported by Pfizer.
Reference
Russel-Smith A, Shah R, Silverstein A, et al. Characteristics, healthcare utilization, and costs associated with inotuzumab ozogamicin, blinatumomab, or other agents for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Presented at EHA 2022; June 9-12, 2022. Abstract P1736.
