AJMC April 13, 2021
Abstract
The cost of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) continues to rise; before the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in mTNBC, cumulative costs of treatment ranged from $51,070 for patients not treated with chemotherapy, up to $143,150 for patients who received three or more regimens. For those with programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)−positive mTNBC, expanding treatments continue to be approved for combination first-line therapy. Both combination atezolizumab with nab-paclitaxel and pembrolizumab with chemotherapy have been recently approved for this population under accelerated approval. Managed care pharmacists should continue to emphasize evidence-based treatment that is consistent with National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, as non-concordance has been associated with increased costs and worsened outcomes. There are several tools that can be used...