Real-world hospital costs for nonchemotherapy drugs and nondrug care associated with platinum-based doublets in the first-line setting for advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer in Chinese patients: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to compare hospital costs per treatment cycle (HCTC) for nonchemotherapy drugs and nondrug care associated with platinum-based doublets in the first-line setting for advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (AdvNS-NSCLC) in Chinese patients. METHODS Patients receiving platinum-based doublets in the first-line setting for AdvNS-NSCLC from 2010 to 2012 in two Chinese tertiary hospitals were identified to create the retrospective study cohort. Propensity score methods were used to create matched treatment groups for head-to-head comparisons on HCTC between pemetrexed-platinum and other platinum-based doublets. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to rank studied platinum-based doublets for their associations with the log10 scale of HCTC for nonchemotherapy drugs and nondrug care. RESULTS Propensity score methods created matched treatment groups for pemetrexed-platinum versus docetaxel-platinum (61 pairs), paclitaxel-platinum (39 pairs), gemcitabine-platinum (93 pairs), and vinorelbine-platinum (73 pairs), respectively. Even though the log10 scale of HCTC for nonchemotherapy drugs and nondrug care associated with pemetrexed-platinum was ranked lowest in all patients (coefficient -0.174, P=0.015), which included patients experiencing any hematological adverse events (coefficient -0.199, P=0.013), neutropenia (coefficient -0.426, P=0.021), or leukopenia (coefficient -0.406, P=0.001), pemetrexed-platinum had the highest total HCTC (median difference from RMB 1,692 to RMB 7,400, P<0.001) among platinum-based doublets because of its higher drug acquisition costs (median difference from RMB 4,636 to RMB 7,332, P<0.001). CONCLUSION Among Chinese patients receiving platinum-based doublets in the first-line setting for AdvNS-NSCLC, the higher acquisition costs for nonplatinum cytotoxic drugs associated with pemetrexed-platinum could be partially offset by its significantly lower hospital costs for nonchemotherapy drugs and nondrug care.