OBJECTIVES. The “PRIHTA-EMATOLOGIA” project was developed in collaboration with Veneto Region (Italy) to analyse patients with hematologic malignancies using administrative databases. Within the project, the present study aims to identify patients with CML, MM and MDS, to analyse their prevalence and to evaluate healthcare resource consumption and related costs by using real-world data.

METHODS. This observational retrospective cohort study was carried out by matching administrative and laboratory data with medical records from Veneto Region. Patients were identified between 01/01/2014—28/02/2018 by ICD-9-CM codes (205.10-205.11 for CML; 203.0 for MM; 238.72-238.73-238.74-238.75 for MDS) and/or by ATC codes of drugs used for CML (imatinib; nilotinib; dasatinib; ponatinib; bosutinib), MM (lenalidomide; thalidomide; bortezomib; pomalidomide; carfilzomib; elotuzumab; daratumumab; melphalan; plerixafor), MDS (azacitidine; lenalidomide). Costs analysis included hospitalizations, drug dispensations, and specialist visits/diagnostic tests and was conducted with the National Health Service perspective.

RESULTS. Overall, 118 CML patient, 240 MM patients and 130 MDS patients were identified. Mean age ±SD was 64.6±14.7 in the CML, 69.6±11.4 in the MM and 73.2±9.7 in the MDS cohorts. Proportions of male were 57.6%, 50.4% and 58.5% among CML, MM and MDS patients, respectively. Prevalence was calculated to be 124.7 (CML), 228.8 (MM), 120.3 (MDS) per 1,000,000 health-assisted individuals. In each disease, peak prevalence was found between ages 70-79 years. The total annual costs for the last year of study period were €20,042, €30,730 and €11,092 for CML, MM and MDS, respectively. Costs were driven mainly by antineoplastic drugs in CML (€16,517) and MM (€19,654) cohorts, and by hospitalizations (€3,691) in MDS cohort.

CONCLUSIONS. Administrative databases represent readily available sources of real-world data valuable for healthcare research purposes. Our findings show that these databases could be reliable tools to provide information on the epidemiology and the economic burden of hematologic malignancies as CML, MM and MDS.