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Survival outcomes of patients newly diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: real-world evidence from a German claims database

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Abstract

Purpose

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma with increasing incidence. Although the burden of disease is high, only limited current real-world data on survival analysis, especially survival time, of German patients with DLBCL are available. This retrospective claims-based analysis was conducted to describe real-world survival evidence and treatment patterns of patients with DLBCL in Germany.

Methods

Using a large claims database of the German statutory health insurance with 6.7 million enrollees, we identified patients between 2010 and 2019 who were newly diagnosed with DLBCL (index date) and had no other cancer co-morbidity. Overall survival (OS) from index date and from the end of each treatment line was plotted by means of the Kaplan–Meier estimator, both for the overall cohort and stratified by treatment regimen. Treatment lines were identified based on a predefined set of medications categorized by established DLBCL treatment recommendations.

Results

2495 incident DLBCL patients were eligible for the study. After index date, 1991 patients started a first-line, 868 a second-line, and 354 a third-line therapy. In first line, 79.5% of patients received a Rituximab-based therapy. 5.0% of the of the 2495 patients received a stem cell transplantation. Overall, median OS after index was 96.0 months.

Conclusion

DLBCL-associated mortality is still high, especially in relapsed patients and in the elderly. Therefore, there is a high medical need for new effective treatments that can improve survival outcomes in DLBCL patients.

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Data availability

Due to the sensitivity of the data and data protection regulations, the analysis datasets of the current study cannot not be shared or stored at a public repository.

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Funding

This study was funded by Miltenyi Biomedicine GmbH.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Duesseldorf, University of Cologne, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Peter Borchmann & Jan-Michel Heger

  2. Miltenyi Biomedicine, Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 68, 51429, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

    Jörg Mahlich, Michael S. Papadimitrious & Sybille Riou

  3. DICE-Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Jörg Mahlich

  4. Team Gesundheit Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsmanagement mbH, Rellinghauser Str. 93, 45128, Essen, Germany

    Barbara Werner

Authors
  1. Peter Borchmann
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  2. Jan-Michel Heger
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  4. Michael S. Papadimitrious
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  5. Sybille Riou
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Contributions

All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published. PB, JM, MP, SR, and BW designed the study. SR drafted the manuscript, BW did the statistical analysis. PB, J-MH revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jörg Mahlich.

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Conflict of interest

JM, SR and MP are employees of Miltenyi Biomedicine GmbH. BW is an employee of Team Gesundheit, a contract research company that received funding from Miltenyi Biomedicine to conduct the study in line with the study protocol. PB and J-MH are employed at the University Hospital Cologne. All authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any other organization or entity with a financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Ethical approval

All individual patient data are anonymized in the research database to comply with German data protection regulations. Institutional review board/ethical approval and informed consent of the individuals were not required.

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Borchmann, P., Heger, JM., Mahlich, J. et al. Survival outcomes of patients newly diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: real-world evidence from a German claims database. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 149, 7091–7101 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-04660-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-04660-y

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