The value of survival gains in myelodysplastic syndromes

To measure the value of survival gains attributable to the introduction of 3 novel therapies for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

Retrospective study of patients diagnosed with MDS in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program (SEER) registry, clinical trial evidence for MDS therapies, and claims data.

We used multivariate Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the increase in survival associated with the introduction of the 3 new therapies for patients diagnosed with MDS from 2001 to 2011 in the SEER cancer registry. Increases in survival associated with the 3 novel therapies were estimated using retrospective survival analyses and published clinical trial evidence. MDS treatment costs were estimated using Ingenix claims data and used to calculate the share of the value of survival gains retained by patients.

We estimated that the introduction of these 3 therapies is associated with a hazard ratio of 0.901 (P <.10), and a 73% increase in median survival from 33 to 57 months. We estimated that for current and future MDS patients, these 3 therapies will generate over $193 billion in cumulative value through extensions in patient survival.

This study demonstrates that the value of recently approved innovative therapies in MDS is large and that the value of survival gains in MDS far outweighs their costs.