OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and costs associated with treatments for patients with BRAF-mutant (BRAF-m) metastatic melanoma (m-melanoma) in the US.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted in Optum Clinformatics (OC) (study period: November 2015-October 2021) and IQVIA PharMetrics Plus (PP) (study period: November 2015-September 2021), evaluating patients with BRAF-m m-melanoma. Patients who received BRAF/MEK inhibitors were presumed to be BRAF-m. HCRU and costs were evaluated based on a per-patient-per-month (PPPM) level.

RESULTS: 190 patients from OC and 192 from PP met eligibility criteria and were further stratified by 1L: immunotherapy (IO) (n=91 and 86, respectively) and targeted therapy (TT) (n=99 and 106, respectively). The median age of IO and TT patients in PP was 56 years old, whereas IO and TT patients in OC were 67 years and 64 years old, respectively. Most patients were male in both databases and treatment classes (55%-62%). TT patients had more patients with brain metastasis (OC: 24%, PP: 33%) compared to IO patients (OC: 19%, PP: 28%), and more patients with National Cancer Institute comorbidity index scores of 3+ (TT - OC: 32%, PP: 21%; IO - OC: 28%, PP: 17%). Although TT patients were more likely to have an inpatient hospitalization (OC: 32%, PP: 31%) compared to IO patients (OC: 9%, PP:12%), IO patients had longer inpatient stays (median PPPM: OC: 2 days, PP: 1.3 days) compared to TT patients (median PPPM: OC: 0.8 days, PP: 1.1 days). 1L overall PPPM costs were higher in IO patients (OC: $52,216, PP: $56,135) compared to TT patients (OC: $32,394, PP: $33,554).

CONCLUSIONS: Clinical characteristics suggest that patients who received TT tended to have a higher disease burden compared to those receiving IO. Costs were higher in IO patients compared to TT patients in both databases.