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Hospital-based health care use correlates with incidence of adverse events among elderly Medicare patients treated in adjuvant chemotherapy trials (Alliance 70802).

ABSTRACT: Medicare claims can be useful in chemotherapy-related comparative effectiveness research (CER) estimating survival, but methods for estimating patients' treatment morbidity are currently lacking. We sought to determine if patients' health care use in the claims is a marker of treatment morbidity.For 249 elderly Medicare patients with breast or colon cancer who were treated in two adjuvant clinical trials, we merged patients' National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events (CTC AEs) trial data with their contemporaneous Medicare claims. We estimated associations of patients' grade ?3 CTC AE counts and their use of two types of hospital-based health care in claims (i.e., emergency room (ER) visits and hospitalizations).ER visits and hospitalizations were significantly positively associated with grade ?3 CTC AE counts incurred by patients during the study. Eight percent of patients without any grade ?3 CTC AEs had one or more hospitalizations during the observation period compared to 43% of patients with three or more grade ?3 CTC AEs (p<0.01). Those who were hospitalized at least once had more than three times the rate of grade ?3 CTC AEs (IRR 3.70, 95% CI: 2.53-5.40) compared to those who were not. With each hospitalization, the daily incidence rate of any grade ?3 CTC AE more than doubled (IRR 2.10, 95% CI: 1.54-2.86).Because hospitalization is strongly associated with clinically significant toxicity it may be a useful outcome for Medicare claim-based CER comparing treatment morbidity for elderly patients receiving different adjuvant chemotherapy regimens.

SUBMITTER: Lamont EB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4119569 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hospital-based health care use correlates with incidence of adverse events among elderly Medicare patients treated in adjuvant chemotherapy trials (Alliance 70802).

Lamont Elizabeth B EB Yu Menggang M He Yulei Y Saltz Leonard L Muss Hyman H Zaslavsky Alan M AM

Journal of geriatric oncology 20140301 3

<h4>Objective</h4>Medicare claims can be useful in chemotherapy-related comparative effectiveness research (CER) estimating survival, but methods for estimating patients' treatment morbidity are currently lacking. We sought to determine if patients' health care use in the claims is a marker of treatment morbidity.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>For 249 elderly Medicare patients with breast or colon cancer who were treated in two adjuvant clinical trials, we merged patients' National Cancer Institu ...[more]

PMID: 24594119

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Project description:ImportanceDespite existing evidence of a benefit associated with cisplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) after radical cystectomy (RC) for chemotherapy-naive patients with pT3/T4 and/or pN+ urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB), to our knowledge, no studies have addressed the effectiveness of AC in those who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) before surgery.ObjectiveTo assess the comparative effectiveness of AC vs observation for patients with pT3/T4 and/or pN+ UCB previously treated with NAC and RC.Design, setting, and participantsThis observational cohort study used the National Cancer Data Base (January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2012) to identify individuals who received NAC and RC followed by AC or observation for pT3/T4 and/or pN+ UCB.Main outcomes and measuresAfter multiple imputation was used to handle missing data, inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW)-adjusted Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed with a 6-month conditional landmark to compare overall survival (OS) among patients who received NAC and RC followed by AC vs observation. In addition, exploratory analyses were conducted to examine the heterogeneity of the treatment effect according to age (continuous), sex (female vs male), Charlson comorbidity index (?1 vs 0), pT/N stage (pT3/T4N0 vs pTanyN+), and surgical margin status (positive vs negative) by testing interaction terms within the IPTW-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression model.ResultsOf the 788 patients with pT3/T4 and/or pN+ UCB (mean [SD] age, 65.3 [9.4] years; 603 [76.5%] male and 185 [23.5%] female), 184 (23.4%) received NAC and RC followed by AC and 604 (76.6%) received NAC and RC followed by observation. The 6-month conditional landmark, IPTW-adjusted Kaplan-Meier curves showed that median OS was significantly longer for NAC and RC followed by AC (29.9 months; interquartile range, 15.1-85.4 months) vs NAC and RC followed by observation (24.2 months; interquartile range, 12.9-58.9 months) (P?=?.046). The 5-year IPTW-adjusted rates of OS were 36.8% for NAC and RC followed by AC vs 24.7% for NAC and RC followed by observation. In the IPTW-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, NAC and RC followed by AC was associated with a significant OS benefit (hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.61-0.99; P?=?.046). Interaction term analyses indicated that the OS benefit of NAC and RC followed by AC decreased significantly with age (hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99; P?=?.02), whereas no significant interaction was observed with sex (P?=?.82), Charlson comorbidity index (P?=?.51), pT/N stage (P?=?.95), and surgical margin status (P?=?.29).Conclusions and relevanceThis study found that AC after NAC and RC may be associated with an OS benefit for patients with pT3/T4 and/or pN+ UCB. The present findings should be considered as preliminary evidence to conduct a randomized clinical trial to address this association.

Project description:PurposeTo determine rates and risk factors associated with severe postoperative complications after cataract surgery and whether they have been changing over the past decade.DesignRetrospective longitudinal cohort study.ParticipantsA total of 221 594 Medicare beneficiaries who underwent cataract surgery during 1994-2006.MethodsBeneficiaries were stratified into 3 cohorts: those who underwent initial cataract surgery during 1994-1995, 1999-2000, or 2005-2006. One-year rates of postoperative severe adverse events (endophthalmitis, suprachoroidal hemorrhage, retinal detachment) were determined for each cohort. Cox regression analyses determined the hazard of developing severe adverse events for each cohort with adjustment for demographic factors, ocular and medical conditions, and surgeon case-mix.Main outcome measuresTime period rates of development of severe postoperative adverse events.ResultsAmong the 221 594 individuals who underwent cataract surgery, 0.5% (1086) had at least 1 severe postoperative complication. After adjustment for confounders, individuals who underwent cataract surgery during 1994-1995 had a 21% increased hazard of being diagnosed with a severe postoperative complication (hazard ratio [HR] 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.41) relative to individuals who underwent cataract surgery during 2005-2006. Those who underwent cataract surgery during 1999-2000 had a 20% increased hazard of experiencing a severe complication (HR 1.20; 95% CI, 1.04-1.39) relative to the 2005-2006 cohort. Risk factors associated with severe adverse events include a prior diagnosis of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (HR 1.62; 95% CI, 1.07-2.45) and cataract surgery combined with another intraocular surgical procedure on the same day (HR 2.51; 95% CI, 2.07-3.04). Individuals receiving surgery by surgeons with the case-mix least prone to developing a severe adverse event (HR 0.52; 95% CI, 0.44-0.62) had a 48% reduced hazard of a severe adverse event relative to recipients of cataract surgery performed by surgeons with the case-mix most prone to developing such outcomes.ConclusionsRates of sight-threatening adverse events after cataract surgery declined during 1994-2006. Future efforts should be directed to identifying ways to reduce severe adverse events in high-risk groups.

Project description:Background:The study is based on a national cluster randomized trial investigating the effect of electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) on treatment outcomes in breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. All 13 oncology departments (11 clusters) treating breast cancer patients in Denmark were randomized to use electronic patient-reported outcomes with real-time clinician feedback (ePRO arm) to track symptoms or usual care for eliciting symptoms using a short paper tracking list (usual care arm). The impact of ePRO on clinical outcomes were examined, which is reported elsewhere. The purpose of the present study was to examine patient-reported experience measure (PREM) regarding communication and handling of side effects/symptoms. Methods:For this sub-study, patient representatives were involved in the development of a PREM questionnaire. Patients enrolled in the cluster randomized trial completed the PREM questionnaire at their last treatment visit. Semi-structured telephone-interviews were performed with a subgroup of patients. The interviews were based on an interview guide comprised of the questions from the PREM questionnaire and aimed to elaborate on the PREM questionnaire data. Results:A 12 item PREM questionnaire was developed in partnership with patient representatives. In total, 439 out of 682 patients (64.4%) included patients completed the PREM questionnaire. Telephone semi-structured interviews were performed with 22 patients. In total, 52% (ePRO arm) and 65% (usual care arm) reported having talked with the oncologist/nurse about their responses in the tracking systems before each chemotherapy cycle. Fewer patients in the ePRO arm compared to the usual care arm experienced side effects/symptoms not included in the side effect questionnaire. Patients experienced high satisfaction with oncologists' and nurses' handling of side effects/symptoms. Conclusions:Patients experienced high satisfaction with oncologists' and nurses' handling of chemotherapy adverse events. The study indicates a need for a more comprehensive side effect questionnaire as tracking system covering more symptoms than the one used in usual care today. Trial registration:Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02996201. Registered 19 December 2016, retrospectively registered.

Project description:BackgroundIn the United States, patients who enroll in chemotherapy trials seldom reflect the attributes of the general population with cancer, as they are often younger, more functional, and have less comorbidity. We compared survival following three chemotherapy regimens according to the setting in which care was delivered (ie, clinical trial vs usual care) to determine the generalizability of clinical trial results to unselected elderly Medicare patients.MethodsUsing SEER-Medicare data, we estimated survival for elderly patients (ie, age 65 years or older, n = 14097) with advanced pancreatic or lung cancer following receipt of one of three guideline-recommended first-line chemotherapy regimens. We compared their survival to that of similarly treated clinical trial enrollees, without age restrictions, with the same diagnosis and stage (n = 937). All statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsTrial patients were 9.5 years younger than elderly Medicare patients. Medicare patients were more often white and tended to live in areas of greater educational attainment than trial enrollees. For each tumor type, Medicare patients who were 75 years or older had median survivals that were six to eight weeks shorter than those of trial patients (4.3 vs 5.8 months following treatment with single agent gemcitabine for advanced pancreatic cancer, P = .03; 7.3 vs 8.9 months following treatment with carboplatin and paclitaxel for stage IV non-small cell lung cancer, P = .91; 8.2 vs 10.2 months following treatment with CDDP/ VP16 for extensive stage small cell lung cancer, P ? .01), whereas younger Medicare patients had survival times that were similar to those of trial patients.ConclusionsResults of clinical trials for advanced pancreatic cancer and lung cancers tended to correctly estimate survival for Medicare patients aged 65 to 74 years, but to overestimate survival for older Medicare patients by six to eight weeks. These estimates of Medicare patients' survival may aid subsequent patients and their oncologists in treatment decision-making.

Dataset Information

Hospital-based health care use correlates with incidence of adverse events among elderly Medicare patients treated in adjuvant chemotherapy trials (Alliance 70802).

Publications

Hospital-based health care use correlates with incidence of adverse events among elderly Medicare patients treated in adjuvant chemotherapy trials (Alliance 70802).

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