Utilization and Cost Effectiveness of First-Line Yttrium-90 Ibritumomab Tiuxetan in Low-Grade Follicular and Marginal Zone Lymphomas Compared to Standard of Care Bendamustine Plus Rituximab: A Real-World Experience

Background

Yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan [(90)Y-IT; Zevalin] is a radio-immunoconjugate (RIC) which targets CD20. This study evaluates the utilization and cost-effectiveness of (90)Y-IT in the first line treatment for patients with previously untreated low-grade FL (UFL) and marginal zone lymphoma (UMZL) treated at our institution with (90)Y-IT.

Methods

We utilized the Advanced Text Explorer (ATE) and the Lymphoma SPORE databases to identify two groups of patients with UFL, WHO grade 1-2, and UMZL who received treatment with either (90)Y-IT or bendamustine plus rituximab (BR) at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center between January 2003 and December 2019. We excluded all patients who had >25% bone marrow involvement with lymphoma for the BR group as this was a requirement for (90)Y-IT treatment. Inverse propensity weighting was utilized to balance the groups for baseline patients and disease characteristics. We use progression-free survival (PFS) as a denominator for the cost effectiveness/utilization evaluation. We identified meaningful and retrospectively measurable outcomes to compare between the groups. we extracted the following data; number of clinic visits in the first year after therapy, emergency room visits, number of hospital admissions, number of hospitalization days, numbers of days on the floor and ICU, number of infections, number of neutropenic fever hospitalizations, number of C-difficile events, number of blood products transfusions, overall use of growth factors due to therapy induced neutropenia, average number of times a growth factor was used, and the number of therapeutic use days. We defined days of therapeutic use as the number of days a treatment was administered on. We also calculated the average cost of the induction treatment when utilizing either (90)Y-IT or BR. The therapeutic cost included only the cost of the medications/therapies and their administration.

Results

Our cohort consists of a total of 143 patients - 64% (92/143) received BR and 36% (51/143) received (90)Y-IT (see Table-1 for clinical characteristics).The median follow-up from the time of therapeutic administration for the (90)Y-IT group was 5.3 years (95% CI; 4.2, 6.2) with one death and 4.7 years (95% CI; 3.9, 4.9) for the BR group with 6 deaths. The ORR was 100% in (90)Y-IT group with 94% achieving complete response (CR) while ORR in the BR group was 98% with 95% achieving CR. Rituximab maintenance was utilized in 33% of BR patients compared to only 6% in patients who received (90)Y-IT, p=0.002. After utilizing inverse propensity weighting (Figure-1), 5 years PFS was 76% for the (90)Y-IT group and 75% for the BR group, p=0.63 (Figure-2).

We evaluated the average treatment effect of (90)Y-IT compared to BR on utilization outcomes, Table-2. (90)Y-IT required an average of 4.5 clinic visits less within the first year after treatment compared to BR group, p<0.001. (90)Y-IT patients had an average of 10 days less of therapeutic use days compared to the BR group, p<0.001. Patienta had similar admission rates to the hospital in both groups. However, when patients were admitted to the hospital in the first year after treatment, those who received (90)Y-IT spent an average of 1.5 days less in the hospital compared to the BR group, p=0.046. The overall use of growth factors was 40% less in the (90)Y-IT group as compared to the BR group, p<0.001. The therapeutic cost of induction of (90)Y-IT was 54% less than that of 6 cycles of BR.

Transformation to a high grade of lymphoma was seen in 4 patients in the BR group and 2 patients in the (90)Y-IT group. There was only one case of myelodysplastic syndrome in the BR group and none in the (90)Y-IT group.

Conclusion

Radio-immunoconjugate therapy with (90)Y-IT is a very convenient and cost-effective treatment for low-grade UFL and UMZL. This is especially important amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as it requires less contact with the health system with decreased number of therapeutic days, clinic visits, use of growth factors and number of hospitalization days. The cost of the therapeutic agents and their administration was also significantly lower for the (90)Y-IT which could help reducing the burden on the health system.

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