Beyond medicines' barriers

AIM: The goal of this research was to quantify and qualify all the costs associated with multiple myeloma (MM) from a healthcare and societal perspective and to highlight certain costs that are often underestimated.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study used a mixed methods approach that consisted of three phases: a systemic literature review (SLR), a virtual roundtable discussion based on the results of the SLR, and an online survey.

RESULTS: In total, 4321 records were identified by literature and snowball searches. After applying the eligibility criteria, 49 articles were included in the narrative summary. As combination treatments have become the mainstay of MM treatment, drug costs have become the most important component of the total healthcare costs. Collected evidence suggests that optimizing treatment pathways, besides prolonging patient survival and maintaining quality of life, has the potential to generate cost savings for all stakeholders (payers and patients). Improved patient access to new therapies that can improve outcomes may reduce the "financial toxicity" of MM by decreasing patients' and caregivers' productivity loss due to better prognosis and it also has the potential of reducing patients' direct health care payments.

LIMITATIONS: Heterogeneity of research objectives of included studies, costing methods, and applied measurement units limited the comparability of cost data between studies. Data for more than half of the world's population, including China, Russia, the Middle East, and Africa were not investigated.

CONCLUSION: While treatment costs are burdensome for healthcare systems, it is only one of several items that make up the True Cost of MM. Understanding these burdens is one way to argue for optimized treatment pathways and improve patient outcomes by tearing down access barriers.