Healthcare resource utilization, costs of care, and treatment of mycosis fungoides cutaneous T-cell lymphoma patterns in a large managed care population: a retrospective US claims-based analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate health care utilization, treatment patterns and costs among patients with mycosis fungoides-cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (MF-CTCL). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study queried the HealthCore Integrated Research Database to identify patients ≥18 years with ≥2 diagnoses of MF-CTCL (ICD-9-CM code 202.1x, 202.2x) between 07 January 2006 and 07 January 2013. Index date was defined as first MF-CTCL diagnosis. Patients were continuously enrolled ≥6 months before and ≥12 months after index date. Severe MF-CTCL was identified via systemic therapy use postindex. Generalized linear model (GLM) was used to estimate the relationship between MF-CTCL severity and healthcare costs controlling for selected factors. RESULTS: A total of 1981 MF-CTCL patients were evaluated: 493 (24.9%) severe and 1488 (75.1%) with mild to moderate disease. GLM analysis indicated severe MF-CTCL patients incurred higher all-cause healthcare total costs compared to patients with mild-to-moderate MF-CTCL (coefficient estimate: 4.19, p < .0001). About 51% of patients did not receive any MF-CTCL-specific treatment within 60 days after MF-CTCL diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: MF-CTCL severity was associated with greater healthcare resource utilization and costs. These findings suggest that about half of MF-CTCL patients do not receive MF-CTCL-specific treatment within 60 days following initial diagnosis. Future studies are needed to understand reasons for delayed treatment initiation.

Direct medical costs of mycosis fungoides in specialized Italian hospital departments.

The objective was to analyze direct medical costs of managing mycosis fungoides (MF). We conducted a retrospective observational study in five Italian specialized departments. The 58 patients enrolled had a confirmed diagnosis of MF stage IIB or worse in 1999. The mean cost per patient was 9,231.40 euro.