Assessing direct costs of treating metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in the USA

Aim: Evaluation of monthly cost during metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) treatment. Patients & methods: Retrospective electronic medical record review of US females aged >= 18 years diagnosed with mTNBC between 1 January 2010 and 31 January 2016. Mean monthly costs per patient were evaluated from start of mTNBC treatment until transfer to hospice, end of record or 3 months prior to death. Results: The mean monthly cost of first line was $21,908 for 505 treated patients; 50.2% of cost was attributable to hospitalization and emergency department visits, and 32.7% to anticancer therapy. Similar patterns were observed for subsequent lines of therapy. Conclusion: The majority of costs were attributable to hospitalization and emergency department services, suggesting a need for effective interventions to reduce utilization of costly services. Lay abstract This study looked at monthly cost during metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) treatment. Medical records were reviewed for US females aged 18 years or older, diagnosed with mTNBC between January 2010 and January 2016. Average monthly costs per patient were looked at from the start of mTNBC treatment until transfer to end of life care, end of the medical record or 3 months before death. The average monthly cost of first-line treatment was $21,908 for 505 treated patients; about half of this cost was from hospitalization and emergency department visits, and about a third was from anticancer therapy. Similar patterns were seen for subsequent lines of therapy. Most of the costs were from hospitalization and emergency department services, pointing to a need for change to reduce the use of costly services.