Description:
<jats:p> e14544 </jats:p><jats:p> Background: Treatment for Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma (PCNSL) includes induction therapy consisting of polychemotherapy including high-dose methotrexate followed by consolidation therapy. There are various induction and consolidation regimens with wide variability in their treatment duration, inpatient vs outpatient administration, and the number of chemotherapeutic agents utilized. We performed a comparative cost and efficacy analysis of three consolidation techniques in an effort to provide insight into the cost-benefit of these treatment regimens. Methods: Patients treated for newly diagnosed PCNSL at our institution after July 1, 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who completed one of the following regimens and received consolidation therapy at our institution were included: rituximab/methotrexate/vincristine/procarbazine (R-MVP), rituximab/methotrexate/temozolomide (R-MT), or rituximab/methotrexate (R-M) for induction followed by consolidation with etoposide/cytarabine (EA), high-dose cytarabine (HIDAC), or high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue (HDC-ASCR). Cost to health system was derived from a Value Driven Outcomes tool and filtered to compare major costs of treatment. Survival was calculated from the date of diagnosis and last date of known survival. Results: Twenty-two patients met eligibility criteria and received the following four treatment regimens: R-MT+EA (12), R-MT+ HDC-ASCR (3), R-M+ HDC-ASCR (1), and R-MVP+HIDAC (6). Patients receiving HDC-ASCR (4) had a trend towards a more favorable overall survival (p = 0.0880) compared to the other two consolidation therapies with no recurrence or death in those patients treated with HDC-ASCR. Comparative cost analysis of facility and pharmacy costs of the three consolidation techniques found that HDC-ASCR was 40 times the cost of the cheapest treatment, HIDAC. Conclusions: This small retrospective review provides evidence that HDC-ASCR may be a superior consolidation strategy but with a profound increase in financial cost. To our knowledge this is the first study completed in the U.S. comparing treatment outcomes and cost in PCNSL. Based on our results, it is clear that a larger and prospective review could potentially shed light on selecting a standard of care based on cost-benefit analysis. </jats:p>