Temporal Trends in Survival and Healthcare Costs in Patients with Multiple Myeloma in the United States.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the development of new therapies for multiple myeloma has improved the survival of patients, but newer treatments may also affect healthcare costs. To date, no real-world study has examined the concurrent changes in survival and total healthcare costs over time in patients with multiple myeloma.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the temporal changes in survival and healthcare costs among patients with multiple myeloma in the United States.

METHOD

This retrospective claims-based cohort study is based on death files in the Truven Health MarketScan Research Commercial and Medicare Supplemental databases. The study included adults who had at least 1 inpatient or 2 outpatient claims with a diagnosis of multiple myeloma between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2014; continuous insurance enrollment for at least 12 months before and at least 30 days after the first diagnosis (ie, index date); and no previous malignancy. Patients were followed from the index date through the earliest among (1) the date of death recorded in the death files, (2) the end of enrollment in the MarketScan database, or (3) end of the study (September 30, 2015). The mortality rates and the total all-cause and multiple myeloma-specific healthcare costs per patient per month were compared between patients diagnosed in 2006-2010 and those diagnosed in 2011-2014.

RESULTS

A total of 5199 patients were included in the study (2597 diagnosed between 2006 and 2010 and 2602 diagnosed between 2011 and 2014). We found a 35% decrease in the risk for death (hazard ratio, 0.65; 95% confidence interval, 0.57-0.74) among patients diagnosed in 2011-2014 compared with those diagnosed in 2006-2010. In addition, 18% and 26% increases were found in all-cause and multiple myeloma-specific healthcare costs, respectively, over the same time period (adjusted mean all-cause costs, $13,960 vs $16,449, respectively; adjusted mean multiple myeloma-specific costs, $7476 vs $9422, respectively).

CONCLUSION

The percent decrease in mortality in patients with multiple myeloma has been greater than the percent increase in healthcare costs in recent years, which may be attributable to improved treatments for multiple myeloma and changes in disease management. With the mortality rate having decreased more than the increase in healthcare costs over the same time period, the results of this study suggest that although healthcare spending has increased over time, there is a survival benefit.