Why carry out this study?

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells and accounts for approximately 10% of all hematological cancers and 1.8% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases in the United States.

Most patients with this cancer will eventually relapse or become refractory to treatment. Thus, treating patients with MM remains a challenge, as these patients eventually progress through several lines of therapy (LOTs).

To gain a better understanding of the potential value of new therapies for treating MM, we utilized a large US administrative healthcare claims database to examine healthcare resource utilization and the costs incurred by MM patients following triple class exposure (TCE; defined as exposure to a proteosome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent, and an anti-CD-38 antibody) during January 2017 through February 2021.

What was learned from the study?

During an average follow-up of 20.9 months, the mean total all-cause healthcare cost per patient was $722,992 (equivalent to $34,578 per patient per month [PPPM]), of which the majority was MM related and primarily attributed to MM drug and infusion costs.

These study findings underscore the significant need to develop and make widely available other novel targeted therapies for the treatment of MM patients to potentially improve patient outcomes and reduce the healthcare economic burden of this patient population.