Economic impact of healthcare resource utilisation patterns among patients diagnosed with advanced melanoma in the United Kingdom, Italy, and France: Results from a retrospective, longitudinal survey (MELODY study)

Objective: To describe patterns of healthcare resource utilisation and associated costs for patients with advanced melanoma in the United Kingdom (UK), Italy, and France. Methods: For patients receiving systemic treatment, or supportive care, data describing hospitalisations, hospice care, and outpatient visits were retrieved retrospectively from advanced disease diagnosis as part of a multicountry observational study. Costs were estimated by multiplying utilisation level by unit cost. In an exploratory analysis, costs were compared between individuals who died within one year of initiating first-line treatment (short-term survivors) and those with ≥1 year follow-up (long-term survivors). Results: Hospitalisation costs were highest in France (€6262 per-person compared with €3225 in the UK and €2486 in Italy), reflecting higher rates of hospitalisation. In contrast, outpatient costs were highest in the UK (€782 per-person, compared with €115 in France and €72 in Italy), reflecting the highest rate and frequency of outpatient visits and the highest cost per visit. Hospitalisation rates were consistently higher during supportive care compared with systemic therapy. Roughly one-third of patients entered clinical trials and were not included in the analysis. In exploratory analysis, total costs were generally higher for long-term survivors, but monthly per-patient costs were generally lower for long-term survivors, consistent with a hypothesis that resource utilisation and costs do not necessarily increase proportionally with extended survival. Conclusion: Total costs associated with resource utilisation for advanced melanoma patients varied across countries. Overall cost differences were due to differences in frequency and intensity of utilisation patterns and variation in unit costs of health resources.