Working-age patients with metastatic ovarian cancer experience significantly higher costs compared to those without cancer, according to findings from an analysis published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy (2020;26[8]:962-970. doi:10.18553/jmcp.2020.26.8.962).
“Ovarian cancer is the tenth most common type of cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among females in the United States,” explained Lauren Chin, PharmD, MS, Formulary Resources, Mercer Island, Washington, and colleagues.
“The majority of incident ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in individuals aged < 65 years, but limited evidence exists regarding the economic burden of ovarian cancer in this age group,” they continued.
This limited evidence led Dr Chin and colleagues to conduct a retrospective cohort analysis estimating the annual all-cause direct total cost of metastatic ovarian cancer, as well as compare this to the cost of individuals without cancer from the commercially insured population in the US.
The IBM MarketScan Commercial Database was used for this analysis.
A total of 2991 patients with metastatic ovarian cancer and 2991 match controls were included in the study. Controls were randomly selected and matched to patients with metastatic ovarian based on age, region, index date, number of months of continuous enrollment after the index date, and propensity score.
Additionally, annual all-cause direct total costs and ovarian cancer-related direct total costs were estimated and compared for each cohort using the Kaplan-Meier sample average technique to account for censoring after the index date.
The mean annual all-cause total costs in the 12-month post-index period were $140,124 ($134,025-$146,267) for patients with metastatic ovarian cancer and $35,161 ($31,338-$39,529) for controls. Thus, the mean difference in annual all-cause total costs was $104,964 ($99,732-$110,042).
In comparison with the annual all-cause total costs, the mean (95% CI) annual ovarian cancer-related total costs in the 12-month post-index period were $86,971 ($82,349-$91,508) for patients with metastatic ovarian cancer and $0 ($0-$0) for controls.
“Working age patients with metastatic ovarian cancer have significantly higher costs compared with those without cancer,” noted Dr Chin and colleagues.
“Given that the majority of ovarian cancer patients are diagnosed at age < 65 years, these findings contribute to the understanding of the burden of illness in a patient population where little evidence currently exists regarding the economic consequences of the disease,” they concluded.—Janelle Bradley
