BACKGROUND

Newly diagnosed Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) can increase the cost burden of chronic conditions in elderly individuals. However, there is a lack of research on the change in costs of chronic conditions during DLBCL diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up as compared to those without cancer.

OBJECTIVES

We examined the cost of common chronic conditions and total cost among 5,455 DLBCL patients >65 years of age as compared to 14,770 individuals without cancer during a 3-year period of DLBCL diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.

METHODS

We used a retrospective longitudinal study design with Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare 2002-2013 data to estimate the costs of care during 6 months’ intervals (pre-diagnosis: t1, t2 and post-diagnosis: t3, t4, t5, t6). All costs were adjusted to 2013 constant dollars.

RESULTS

The difference in total cost between DLBCL and non-cancer patients increased substantially from t1 ($468.8) to t3 (treatment period: $60,746.1) and t6 ($6,614.8). DLBCL patients had a higher cost of heart conditions; however, they had significantly lower costs of hypertension, asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, any mental illness, and diabetes than non-cancer patients (all p< .001).

CONCLUSIONS

DLBCL patients incurred high total cost of care during the treatment period. The cardio-toxicity of DLBCL treatment may have increased the cost of heart conditions. DLBCL patients might be receiving less healthcare services for other conditions leading to lower short term costs of other common chronic conditions. Future studies are recommended to investigate the cost-effectiveness of increasing the quality of care for chronic conditions among DLBCL patients.