Temporal and geographic variation in the systemic treatment of advanced prostate cancer

BACKGROUND: Several systemic treatments have been shown to increase survival for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. This study sought to characterize variation in use of the six “focus drugs” (docetaxel, abiraterone, enzalutamide, sipuleucel-T, radium-223, and cabazitaxel) that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer during the years 2010–2015. We hypothesized that the use of these treatments would vary over time and by region of the country. METHODS: We used Clinformatics DataMart™ Database (OptumInsight, Eden Prairie, MN), a de-identified claims database from a national insurance provider. Our sample included patients with prostate cancer who received any of the six drugs. We describe changes in usage patterns over time and geographic region of the United States via detailed descriptive statistics. We explore both patterns of first line therapy and sequence of treatments in our database. RESULTS: Our final analysis included 4275 patients with a mean age of 74 years. Docetaxel was the most commonly used first-line therapy in 2010 (97%), 2011 (66%), and 2012 (49%). Abiraterone was the most commonly used first-line therapy in 2013 (56%), 2014 (46%), and 2015 (34%). Approximately 14% of our study cohort received ≥3 of the 6 drugs throughout their disease course. There was marked geographic variation in use of each of the drugs. CONCLUSION: Variation in treatment patterns were found with respect to both time and geographic location. Prescription rates of abiraterone outpaced docetaxel as the most commonly prescribed drug after 2013 when it became widely available. However, some regions of the country still lagged behind and prescribed less than would be expected. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-4166-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.