Background: A 2010 study on the impact of cancer mortality on productivity costs found Hodgkin lymphoma to have the second largest productivity cost lost per death in the United States. The ECHELON-1 trial demonstrated that frontline brentuximab vedotin, doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (A+AVD) improves overall survival (OS) vs doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) in stage III/IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), reducing the risk of death to 41% (hazard ratio = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.40-0.88; P = 0.009).
Objectives: To assess the estimated impact of frontline treatment choice on mortality and productivity using an oncology simulation model informed by ECHELON-1 data.
Methods: Individual productivity was estimated using the human capital approach and reported via present value lifetime earnings (PVLE) estimates. Deaths avoided and lifeyears saved without and with A+AVD were calculated using a model informed by realworld treatment use, treatment-specific OS, and expert clinicians' opinions. A+AVD use in the base case was 27% (range: 0%-80%). Stage III/IV cHL prevalence over a 10-year period was estimated; downstream lifetime productivity costs were projected without and with A+AVD.
Results: In 2031, 3,645 patients were estimated to be newly diagnosed with stage III/IV cHL. Over 10 years with 27% A+AVD vs no A+AVD use, estimates predicted 14% fewer deaths (2,290 vs 2,650) and 14% less total PVLE losses ($1.438 vs $1.664 billion). Results from scenario analyses (40%-80% vs no A+AVD use) showed 20% to 32% decreases in PVLE losses ($1.331-$1.137 billion vs $1.664 billion), saving up to $527 million over 10 years.
Conclusions: Productivity cost losses due to mortality in stage III/IV cHL are high. Increasing A+AVD use for patients with stage III/IV cHL would reduce productivity cost losses as deaths are avoided, based on ECHELON-1 OS results.