Abstract 571P
Background
The revolution of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs) use offered significant improvement in survival outcomes of cancer patients but may cause a variety of Immune related adverse events (irAEs). These irAEs not only require medical intervention, but also incur substantial costs associated with hospital admissions, diagnostic tests, and pharmacological treatments.
Methods
A retrospective cross sectional analysis of patients treated with ICPIs at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) from January 2015 until January 2020. The overall costs associated with irAEs were evaluated through estimating the costs incurred from hospital resource utilization, medications utilized for irAEs management, hospitalization, and laboratory workup. The direct medical costs of consumables will be determined using unit costs of resources and consumable from the hospital perspective. All costs will be calculated in Qatari Riyals (QAR).
Results
We evaluated 236 patients who used 255 ICPI agents. We identified 131 patients (55.6%) developed irAEs, with 165 events reported. Our preliminary analysis showed that most common irAEs were skin related such as skin rash and itching, followed by endocrine irAEs such as hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency. Mostly utilized medication for the management of irAEs was steroids, where up to 31 patients received steroids. It was noted that both renal and respiratory irAEs led to the longest hospital stay, resulting in a total of 111 and 98 days, respectively. Secondary to renal irAEs, a total of QAR 677,766 (186,148 USD) was estimated secondary to hospitalization. While hospitalization due to respiratory irAEs was found to be QAR 598,388 (164,347 USD). It was estimated that hospitalization due to irAEs incurred a total cost of QAR 4,121,540 (1,131,980 USD).
Conclusions
The irAEs at the NCCCR resulted in significant costs. Skin irAEs were most common, and steroids were frequently used for management. Renal and respiratory irAEs led to the longest hospital stays and highest costs. The total hospitalization cost due to irAEs reached up to 4 million QAR (more than 1 million USD), highlighting the economic burden of irAEs and the need for effective management strategies.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
N.E. Omar.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.