Grade 3/4 Adverse Event Costs of Immuno-oncology Combination Therapies for Previously Untreated Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Despite 4 approved combination regimens in the first-line setting for advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC), adverse event (AE) costs data are lacking.

A descriptive analysis on 2 AE cost comparisons was conducted using patient-level data for the nivolumab-based therapies and published data for the pembrolizumab-based therapies. First, grade 3/4 AE costs were compared between nivolumab + ipilimumab vs. nivolumab + cabozantinib vs. pembrolizumab + axitinib using data from the CheckMate 214 (median follow-up [mFU]: 13.1 months), CheckMate 9ER (mFU: 12.8 months), and KEYNOTE-426 (mFU: 12.8 months) trials, respectively. Second, grade 3/4 AE costs were compared between nivolumab + ipilimumab vs. nivolumab + cabozantinib vs. pembrolizumab + lenvatinib using data from the CheckMate 214 (mFU: 26.7 months), CheckMate 9ER (mFU: 23.5 months), and KEYNOTE-581 (mFU: 26.6 months) trials, respectively. Per-patient costs for all-cause and treatment-related grade 3/4 AEs with corresponding any-grade AE rates ≥ 20% were calculated based on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project database and inflated to 2020 US dollars.

Per-patient all-cause grade 3/4 AE costs for nivolumab + ipilimumab vs. nivolumab + cabozantinib vs. pembrolizumab + axitinib were $2703 vs. $4508 vs. $5772, and treatment-related grade 3/4 AE costs were $741 vs. $2722 vs. $4440 over ~12.8 months of FU. For nivolumab + ipilimumab vs. nivolumab + cabozantinib vs. pembrolizumab + lenvatinib, per-patient all-cause grade 3/4 AE costs were $3120 vs. $5800 vs. $9285, while treatment-related grade 3/4 AE costs were $863 vs. $3162 vs. $5030 over ~26.6 months of FU.

Patients with aRCC treated with first-line nivolumab-based therapies had lower grade 3/4 all-cause and treatment-related AE costs than pembrolizumab-based therapies, suggesting a more favorable cost-benefit profile.

The oncologist. 2022 Sep 19 [Epub ahead of print]

Bradley McGregor, Daniel M Geynisman, Mauricio Burotto, Camillo Porta, Cristina Suarez, Maria T Bourlon, Viviana Del Tejo, Ella X Du, Xiaoran Yang, Selvam R Sendhil, Keith A Betts, Stephen Huo

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA., Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA., Bradford Hill Clinical Research Center, Santiago, Chile., University of Bari "A. Moro," and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Consorziale Policlinico di Bari, Bari, Italy., Vall d´Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron, Vall d´Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain., Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico., Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ, USA., Analysis Group, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, USA.