The researchers used de-identified medical and pharmaceutical claims data in the collaborative project. They examined claims from 7,642 colon cancer cases treated between Jan. 2007 and June 2010, including 1,041 who developed metastatic disease. Of those 1,041 patients, 140 (13 percent) received treatments that were not supported by the evidence from clinical studies. Many of them received multiple cycles of non-beneficial chemotherapy.
Other notable findings include the following:
• Ninety-one of the 140 patients went through 632 intravenous cycles of bevacizumab, a regimen with insufficient data, at an estimated cost of $1.3 million. Potential side effects include hypertension, heightened risk of bleeding and bowel perforation.
• Fifty-nine of the 140 patients received 218 cycles of capecitabine, a treatment shown to be “ineffective,” at a cost of more than $600,000. This drug, taken orally, can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, rash and swelling of the hands or feet.
• Six of the 140 patients underwent 19 cycles of panitumumab, a regimen with no compelling rationale, at a cost of almost $70,000. This drug can trigger itching, dermatitis and rash.
The researchers could not conclude why patients and their physicians opted for unproven therapies.
Read the UC Medical Center news release on cancer treatment regimens.
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