Treatment patterns, healthcare resource utilization, and costs of patients diagnosed with primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma in the United States

Aims With the advent of ICD-10-CM codes for PMBCL on 10/01/2015, assessment of treatment patterns and healthcare burden among US patients is possible. This study sought to describe the real-world treatment patterns and economic outcomes of patients with PMBCL. Methods Data from the Optum Clinformatics DataMart database was used (January 2013-March 2018). Patients with a first PMBCL ICD-10-CM diagnosis (with or without an antecedent ICD-10-CM diagnosis of DLBCL/other lymphoma, which may have been assigned before PMBCL confirmation) after 10/01/2015 (index date) and no ICD-9-CM diagnosis code for unspecified PMBCL/DLBCL were identified as incident patients. Those with PMBCL ICD-10-CM and unspecified ICD-9-CM diagnosis for PMBCL/DLBCL before 10/01/2015 (index date) were identified as prevalent patients. Patients were observed from the index date up to the earliest among death, end of data availability, or end of continuous health plan enrollment. An adapted algorithm was used to identify lines of therapy (LOT). Results Among 118 incident and 30 prevalent PMBCL patients, 14% and 20% of patients received >= 2 LOTs, respectively. In incident patients, 48% received >= 1 LOT, 14% >= 2, and 4% >= 3 LOTs. Among prevalent patients, 63% received >= 1 LOT and 20% >= 2 LOTs. The most frequently recorded 1 L therapy was R-CHOP both among incident and prevalent patients. Mean total healthcare costs for incident and prevalent patients were $149,340 and $92,799 per patient per year, respectively, with higher costs <= 12 months ($187,241 and $167,553). Outpatient costs were the main driver (accounting for 60.5% and 64.6% for incident and prevalent patients, respectively). Limitations Potential underuse of ICD-10-CM codes shortly after discontinuation of ICD-9-CM codes in 01/2015; regimens identified for each LOT using the claims-based algorithm may not reflect the regimen administered. Conclusion The multiple LOTs necessary for a sizeable minority of patients and the high costs of care highlight the significant unmet needs of PMBCL patients.