John Ashcroft1, Ignacio Duran2, Herbert Hoefeler3, Vito Lorusso4, Diana Lueftner5, Marco Campioni6, Michele Intorcia6, Amit Bahl7. 1. Pinderfields General Hospital, Wakefield, UK. 2. Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla, IBiS/Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío/CSIC/Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain. 3. Forschungszentrum Ruhr, Witten, Germany. 4. Instituto Oncologico, IRCCS, Bari, Italy. 5. Medical Department, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Tumor Immunology, Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 6. Health Economics, Amgen (Europe) GmbH, Zug, Switzerland. 7. University Hospitals Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) often experience debilitating skeletal-related events (SREs: pathologic fracture, radiation to bone [RB], surgery to bone [SB] or spinal cord compression [SCC]). This is the first comprehensive, prospective, observational analysis of healthcare resource utilisation (HRU), independently attributed to SREs by investigators, in patients with MM. METHODS: Eligible patients had lytic bone lesions, life expectancy ≥6 months, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≤2 and ≥1 SRE in the 97 days before enrolment. Data were collected retrospectively for 97 days before enrolment and prospectively for 18-21 months. RESULTS: Altogether, 153 patients were enrolled from Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Of the 281 observed SREs, 36.7% required inpatient stays (mean duration: 20.6 days per SRE [standard deviation (SD): 22.9]). SB and SCC were the SREs most likely to require stays (72.3% and 50.0% of SREs, respectively); SCC required the longest mean (SD) stay per event (40.5 [40.8] days). Overall, 179 SREs required outpatient visits; this was most likely for RB (74.8%) and least likely for non-vertebral fracture (50.0%). CONCLUSIONS: All SREs were associated with substantial HRU; therefore, preventing SREs in MM will reduce the economic and resource burden on healthcare systems.
OBJECTIVES:Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) often experience debilitating skeletal-related events (SREs: pathologic fracture, radiation to bone [RB], surgery to bone [SB] or spinal cord compression [SCC]). This is the first comprehensive, prospective, observational analysis of healthcare resource utilisation (HRU), independently attributed to SREs by investigators, in patients with MM. METHODS: Eligible patients had lytic bone lesions, life expectancy ≥6 months, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≤2 and ≥1 SRE in the 97 days before enrolment. Data were collected retrospectively for 97 days before enrolment and prospectively for 18-21 months. RESULTS: Altogether, 153 patients were enrolled from Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Of the 281 observed SREs, 36.7% required inpatient stays (mean duration: 20.6 days per SRE [standard deviation (SD): 22.9]). SB and SCC were the SREs most likely to require stays (72.3% and 50.0% of SREs, respectively); SCC required the longest mean (SD) stay per event (40.5 [40.8] days). Overall, 179 SREs required outpatient visits; this was most likely for RB (74.8%) and least likely for non-vertebral fracture (50.0%). CONCLUSIONS: All SREs were associated with substantial HRU; therefore, preventing SREs in MM will reduce the economic and resource burden on healthcare systems.