Medical Costs by Disease Stage in Medicare Patients with Metastatic Melanoma - Journal of Cancer Therapy

JCT > Vol.8 No.11, November 2017

Medical Costs by Disease Stage in Medicare Patients with Metastatic Melanoma ()

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DOI: 10.4236/jct.2017.811080 817 Downloads 2,120 Views Citations

Author(s)

Amanda M. Farr¹, Zhongyun Zhao², Xue Song^1*, Beth Barber², Boris Ivanov¹, Marilyn Novich¹

Affiliation(s)

¹Life Sciences, Truven Health Analytics, IBM Company, Cambridge, MA, USA.
²Global Health Economics, Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.

ABSTRACT

Background: Melanoma is a rare but serious skin cancer that is responsible for >90% of skin cancer-related deaths. This retrospective data analysis quantifies the direct cost of medical care by disease stage at diagnosis for patients with metastatic melanoma. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database was queried for patients diagnosed between 2004-2009 with stage IIIB/C and stage IV (M1a, M1b, M1c) melanoma. The primary outcome was overall medical utilization and associated costs from diagnosis to death, the end of Medicare enrolment, or 12/31/2010. Results are stratified by disease stage at diagnosis and presented as per-patient per-month (PPPM) costs. Results: Of the 1263 patients meeting the study criteria (mean age: 75 years; 64% male, 92% white, mean duration of follow up: 37.5 months), 66.6% were diagnosed at stage IIIB/C and 33.4% at stage IV. Cost of care increased with disease stage. Total PPPM costs ranged from $1966 for patients diagnosed with stage IIIB to $4585 among patients diagnosed with stage M1c. Outpatient costs accounted 48.9% of total medical costs among stage IIIB patients, and 38.7% of total medical costs for stage M1c patients. Inpatient costs accounted for 37.1% (stage M1b) - 40.9% (stage M1c) of total medical costs. Conclusions: Healthcare costs for treating patients with metastatic melanoma increase by disease stage. The cost of care was more than double among patients with late stage compared to those with early stage. Treatments demonstrating ability to prevent disease progression from early stage to late stage may confer an economic benefit among other clinical advantages.

KEYWORDS

Melanoma, Healthcare Costs, Disease Stage, Medicare

Share and Cite:

Farr, A. , Zhao, Z. , Song, X. , Barber, B. , Ivanov, B. and Novich, M. (2017) Medical Costs by Disease Stage in Medicare Patients with Metastatic Melanoma. Journal of Cancer Therapy, 8, 913-923. doi: 10.4236/jct.2017.811080.

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