PCN187 Treatment Patterns in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma

To describe treatment patterns in patients with metastatic melanoma (MM) in the US. Using a large US medical claims database, patients were identified between 2005 and 2010 using ≥2melanoma diagnoses (ICD-9-CM: 172.xx, V10.82) and ≥2 diagnoses for metastasis (ICD-9-CM: 197.xx, 198.xx). The index date was the first date of metastasis diagnosis. Patients who had other primary malignant tumors prior to the melanoma diagnosis, were younger than 18 years old at the index, or had a pre-index period of less than 6 months, were excluded from the analysis. Patients were followed from the index date to death, disenrollment, or end of the study period (June 30, 2010), whichever occurred first. Drug, surgery, and radiation therapy were examined descriptively. The trend of treatment patterns over the years was also examined. A total of 2546 MM patients who met the study inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the analyses. Mean (± standard deviation) age was 60.6 (± 14.0) years old and 36.5% were female. Mean length of follow-up observation period was 322 days. The most common site of metastasis at the index date was lung (21.2%), brain and spinal cord (18.7%), distant area of the skin (11.4%), bone (11.2%), and liver (10.0%). Overall, 56.8% of patients received cancer-related surgery, 38.7% received drug treatment, and 44.7% received radiation therapy after MM diagnosis. Among patients who received drug treatment, 48.7% received temozolomide, 22.3% paclitaxel, 19.4% carboplatin, 17.6% interleukin-2 (IL-2), 17.2% dacarbazine (DTIC), 14.4% interferon alfa-2b (IFN), 9.9% cisplatin, 6.3% vinblastine, 4.7% granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), 4.5% docetaxel, 2.0% carmustine, and 0.2% bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG). Approximately 39% of MM patients were treated with chemotherapy or immunotherapy and this pattern remained similar during the last decade, which suggests an unmet need for patients with advanced melanoma.