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Patient and caregiver time burden associated with anaemia treatment in different patient populations

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Abstract

Goals

Cancer patients treated with chemotherapy often develop anaemia. This cross-sectional analysis examined the effect of anaemia treatment on patient and caregiver time and activities.

Materials and methods

The analysis included 9,920 patients from 646 US outpatient oncology centres. Patients completed a survey that contained questions about travel time, total time for the visit and other impacts.

Results

The mean time taken for a single clinic visit to receive anaemia treatment was 2.2 h. On average, patients receiving epoetin alfa required 17.6 h more than patients receiving darbepoetin alfa to complete a course of anaemia treatment. All patients in the study reported that they had to adjust at least one activity as a result of clinic visits. Older patients, women and patients from low-income areas were more likely to be accompanied during clinic visits.

Conclusions

Reducing the number of clinic visits needed for anaemia treatment by using darbepoetin alfa may benefit patients.

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Acknowledgements

Arthur C. Houts, Ph.D., participated in the design of the study, conducted hierarchical analyses of data and made final editing decisions. Geoffrey A. Loh assisted with data reconfiguration and cleaning and drafted analyses and tables during his summer internship at Amgen. Barry V. Fortner, Ph.D., conceived the study and participated in its design and co-ordination. Joel D. Kallich, Ph.D., expanded the design of the study to include broad sociological and economic variables. All authors contributed to the development of the manuscript and approved the final version. The authors would like to thank Zhao Yonggang for her assistance with statistical calculations and Lance Teschmacher and Mike Choukour (i3Statprobe) for assistance with statistical calculations and comments on the manuscript. i3Statprobe is a contractor for Amgen. The authors would also like to thank Gardiner-Caldwell London (Maidenhead, UK) for general editorial assistance. The funding for this research was provided by Supportive Oncology Services (Ted Okon, CEO) and by an unrestricted educational grant from Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA). Amgen is the manufacturer of Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa), which is indicated for reducing the incidence of chemotherapy-induced anaemia in cancer patients with non-myeloid malignancies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Supportive Oncology Services and Accelerated Community Oncology, Memphis, TN, USA

    Arthur C. Houts & Barry V. Fortner

  2. Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

    Geoffrey A. Loh & Joel D. Kallich

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  1. Arthur C. Houts
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  2. Geoffrey A. Loh
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  3. Barry V. Fortner
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  4. Joel D. Kallich
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Correspondence to Arthur C. Houts.

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Houts, A.C., Loh, G.A., Fortner, B.V. et al. Patient and caregiver time burden associated with anaemia treatment in different patient populations. Support Care Cancer 14, 1195–1204 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0075-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0075-0

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