Abstract
To describe patient characteristics and treatment patterns among elderly patients (≥66 years) newly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), we analyzed 100% Medicare ALL data from 2007 to 2015. Only 764 out of 1428 (53.5%) elderly patients received treatment within 90 d of diagnosis with ≥30-d follow-up; 32.4% received chemotherapy without tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), 8.8% received both chemotherapy and TKIs, 9.8% received steroids only and 2.6% received TKIs only. Among 717 patients receiving chemotherapy any time during follow-up, 65.8% received only one course of treatment. Patients treated with chemotherapy or TKIs compared to untreated patients were younger (<75 years: 51.5 vs. 21.7%) and had a lower comorbidity burden (Charlson Comorbidity index ≤ 2: 90.9 vs. 71.4%). Overall, 67.5% of patients died within 3 years of diagnosis. Our findings demonstrate that many elderly ALL patients are not treated in the real-world setting and highlight the need for tolerable therapies for these patients.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1462-1468 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Leukemia and Lymphoma |
Volume | 60 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 12 2019 |
Keywords
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- Medicare
- claims
- survival
- treatment patterns
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Hematology
- Oncology
- Cancer Research