Use of Phase of Care Approach to Estimate the Impact of Targeted Oral Anticancer Medications on the Costs of Cancer Care for Elderly Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Wen-Hsing Wu, The University of Texas School of Public Health

Abstract

The survival and other disease quality indicators of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) have been largely approved after the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), a series of targeted oral anticancer medications (TOAMs). However, TOAMs are very expensive and needed to take continuously. This treatment places a huge financial on health care systems and patients themselves. Our objective is to estimate the total medical costs and costs attributable to CML, and to analyze the financial impact after the introduction of new cancer treatment. A model was developed to estimate 5-year mean costs for CML patients aged 65 and older. The data source is SEER-Medicare linked database from 2007-2012. The period of cancer treatment was divided into phases. Monthly costs were estimated based on method specific for modeling cancer costs. Long-term costs were calculated by further applying the survival probability. Overall, the 1 year mean costs for patients using TKIs was 1.6 times as much as conventional IV treatment. Because of the improvements in life expectancy and the changes of medical practice, 5-year mean costs were $292,071 (95% CI: 270,338-312990) for TKIs group compared to only $87,098 (95% CI: 78,354-96,282) for conventional IV group. Prescription drugs made up approximately 60-70% of total costs for TKIs group and costs around $60,000 a year. To sum up, the change of medical practice and the introduction of new treatment technology place a significant financial to health care payer system. Future research should evaluate the sustainability of new cancer drugs.

Subject Area

Biostatistics|Statistics|Health sciences

Recommended Citation

Wu, Wen-Hsing, "Use of Phase of Care Approach to Estimate the Impact of Targeted Oral Anticancer Medications on the Costs of Cancer Care for Elderly Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia" (2018). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI10840847.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI10840847

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