Herpes zoster burden in patients with asthma: real-world incidence, healthcare resource utilisation and cost.

BACKGROUND: Herpes zoster (HZ) is a painful condition caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. The objectives of this study were to compare HZ incidence in adults with asthma versus adults without asthma and to compare healthcare resource use as well as direct costs in adults with HZ and asthma versus adults with asthma alone in the USA. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included adults aged ≥18 years across the USA. Patients were identified from Optum's deidentified Clinformatics Data Mart Database, an administrative claims database, between 1 October 2015 and 28 February 2020, including commercially insured and Medicare Advantage with part D beneficiaries. Cohorts of patients with and without asthma, and separate cohorts of patients with asthma and HZ and with asthma but not HZ, were identified using International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, Clinical Modification codes. HZ incidence, healthcare resource use and costs were compared, adjusting for baseline characteristics, between the relevant cohorts using generalised linear models. RESULTS: HZ incidence was higher in patients with asthma (11.59 per 1000 person-years) than patients without asthma (7.16 per 1000 person-years). The adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) for HZ in patients with asthma, compared with patients without asthma, was 1.34 (95% CI 1.32 to 1.37). Over 12 months of follow-up, patients with asthma and HZ had more inpatient stays (aIRR 1.11; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.21), emergency department visits (aIRR 1.26; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.34) and outpatient visits (aIRR 1.19; 95% CI 1.16 to 1.22), and direct healthcare costs that were US dollars ($) 3058 (95% CI $1671 to $4492) higher than patients with asthma without HZ. CONCLUSION: Patients with asthma had a higher incidence of HZ than those without asthma, and among patients with asthma HZ added to their healthcare resource use and costs.

Impact of age at ivacaftor initiation on pulmonary outcomes among people with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: Ivacaftor (IVA) improves lung function and other extrapulmonary outcomes in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). However, the effect of initiating IVA at earlier versus later ages has not been studied. METHODS: We conducted an observational cohort study of people in the US CF Foundation Patient Registry aged ≥6 years with ≥1 CF transmembrane conductance regulator-gating mutation to compare the effects of initiating IVA at earlier ages on per cent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s (ppFEV1) and pulmonary exacerbation (PEx) outcomes. People with CF were grouped by age at IVA initiation (ages 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and 21-25 years) to perform three analyses of younger versus older IVA initiation (6-10 vs 11-15, 11-15 vs 16-20 and 16-20 vs 21-25 years). For each analysis, baseline characteristics assessed over 1-year periods at the same age prior to IVA initiation were balanced by standardised mortality/morbidity ratio (SMR) weighting. For each analysis, outcomes were compared over a 5-year outcome assessment period when both groups were in the same age range and receiving IVA. FINDINGS: Baseline characteristics were well balanced between younger and older IVA initiator groups after SMR weighting. In the outcome assessment period, younger IVA initiators had significantly higher mean ppFEV1 than older initiators across all comparisons, and those initiating IVA between ages 6-10 and 11-15 years had significantly lower PEx rates. INTERPRETATION: Study findings showed the importance of early IVA initiation in people with CF.

Treatment Patterns and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients With Metastatic Prostate Cancer Harboring Homologous Recombination Repair Mutations.

BACKGROUND: There is currently limited literature assessing the real-world treatment patterns and clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and homologous recombination repair (HRR) mutations. METHODS: Medical charts were abstracted for mCRPC patients with ≥ 1 of 12 HRR somatic gene alterations treated at US oncology centers participating in the American Association for Cancer Research Project Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange. Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes were assessed from the initiation of first-line or later (1L+) mCRPC therapy received on or after July 1, 2014. RESULTS: Among 138 patients included in the study, the most common somatic HRR mutations were CDK12 (47.8%), BRCA2 (22.5%), and ATM (21.0%). Novel hormonal therapy and taxane chemotherapy were most commonly used in 1L; taxane use increased in later lines. Median overall survival (95% confidence interval [CI]) was 36.3 (30.7-47.8) months from initiation of 1L therapy and decreased for subsequent lines. Similarly, there was a trend of decreasing progression-free survival and prostate-specific antigen response from 1L to 4L+ therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment patterns identified in this study were similar to those among patients with mCRPC regardless of tumor HRR mutation status in the literature.

Effects of risk factors for ovarian cancer in women with and without endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associations between 10 well-established ovarian cancer risk factors and risk of ovarian cancer among women with vs. without endometriosis. DESIGN: Pooled analysis of 9 case-control studies in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. SETTING: Population-based. PATIENT(S): We included 8,500 women with ovarian cancer, 13,592 control women. INTERVENTION(S): Ten well-established ovarian cancer risk factors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Risk of ovarian cancer for women with and without endometriosis. RESULT(S): Most risk factor-ovarian cancer associations were similar when comparing women with and without endometriosis, and no interactions were statistically significant. However, body mass index (BMI) 25-<30 kg/m2 was associated with increased ovarian cancer risk among women with endometriosis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00-1.60), but not associated with the risk among women without endometriosis (OR = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.91-1.05) when compared with BMI 18.5-<25 kg/m2; an increased risk was observed for a BMI ≥30 kg/m2, although there was little difference comparing women with endometriosis (OR = 1.21; 95% CI, 0.94-1.57) to women without (OR = 1.13; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22) (P-interaction = .51). Genital talcum powder use and long-term menopausal estrogen-only therapy use showed increased ovarian cancer risk, but risk appeared greater for those with endometriosis vs. those without (genital talcum powder: OR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.04-1.84 vs. OR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01-1.25, respectively; ≥10 years of estrogen-only therapy: OR = 1.88; 95% CI, 1.09-3.24 vs. OR = 1.42; 95% CI, 1.14-1.76, respectively); neither of these interactions were statistically significant (P-interaction = .65 and P-interaction = .96, respectively). CONCLUSION(S): The associations between ovarian cancer and most risk factors were similar among women with and without endometriosis. However, there was some suggestion of differences by endometriosis status for BMI, menopausal hormone therapy use, and genital talcum powder use, highlighting the complexity of ovarian cancer etiology.

Estimating the US pericarditis prevalence using national health encounter surveillance databases.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain a nationally representative annualized estimate of the prevalence of pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium) in the United States (US) in order to better understand the potential burden on the health care system. METHODS: Three nationally representative datasets were used to estimate the annualized period prevalence and prevalence rate of pericarditis from 2007 to 2016: the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), and the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). Across all data sources, ICD-9/10 codes were used to identify healthcare encounters with ≥1 primary or secondary diagnosis related to pericarditis irrespective of duration or etiology. The prevalence of pericarditis in 2020 was extrapolated by multiplying the average annualized prevalence rate from 2007 to 2016 by the total US population as of March 2020. RESULTS: Data from NAMCS/NHAMCS (2007-2016) yielded an average annualized estimate of 125,209 patients with pericarditis, resulting in a pooled average annualized prevalence estimate of 40 patients with pericarditis per 100,000 persons. Data from NIS (2007-2016) yielded an average annualized estimate of 34,441 patients with pericarditis, resulting in a pooled average annualized prevalence estimate of 11 hospitalized patients with pericarditis per 100,000 persons. Extrapolation of these results based on the March 2020 population estimates from the US Census Bureau of 329,436,928 resulted in an estimated US prevalence of pericarditis to be approximately160,000. CONCLUSION: Despite certain methodologic limitations, our analysis of data from nationally representative sources support that pericarditis is a rare disease affecting substantially fewer than 200,000 persons in the US.

Endometriosis and menopausal hormone therapy impact the hysterectomy-ovarian cancer association.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between hysterectomy and ovarian cancer, and to understand how hormone therapy (HT) use and endometriosis affect this association. METHODS: We conducted a pooled analysis of self-reported data from 11 case-control studies in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC). Women with (n = 5350) and without ovarian cancer (n = 7544) who never used HT or exclusively used either estrogen-only therapy (ET) or estrogen+progestin therapy (EPT) were included. Risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer adjusted for duration of ET and EPT use and stratified on history of endometriosis was determined using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Overall and among women without endometriosis, there was a positive association between ovarian cancer risk and hysterectomy (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.09-1.31 and OR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.09-1.32, respectively), but no association upon adjusting for duration of ET and EPT use (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 0.94-1.16 and OR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.95-1.18, respectively). Among women with a history of endometriosis, there was a slight inverse association between hysterectomy and ovarian cancer risk (OR = 0.93, 95% CI 0.69-1.26), but this association became stronger and statistically significant after adjusting for duration of ET and EPT use (OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.48-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: The hysterectomy-ovarian cancer association is complex and cannot be understood without considering duration of ET and EPT use and history of endometriosis. Failure to take these exposures into account in prior studies casts doubt on their conclusions. Overall, hysterectomy is not risk-reducing for ovarian cancer, however the inverse association among women with endometriosis warrants further investigation.