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September 5, 2025

Real-world costs, treatment patterns, and clinical outcomes associated with treatments for advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase–positive non–small cell lung cancer

Key Points

Patients with advanced ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer exhibited high treatment discontinuation rates, highlighting a significant clinical challenge.
Total per-patient-per-month costs for treatments were around $28,216, suggesting substantial economic implications for healthcare systems.
Overall survival (OS) for patients receiving first-line therapies was a median of 25.5 months, underlining the effectiveness of chosen treatments.
A retrospective cohort study was conducted using real-world data from the Clinformatics Data Mart Database over five years, providing insights into treatment efficacy.

Abstract

Alectinib, brigatinib, and lorlatinib are all preferred first-line (1L) therapies for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) -positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. Although clinical trials have demonstrated their efficacy, real-world evidence on treatment patterns, costs, and outcomes may help differentiate these therapies and inform optimal 1L treatment selection in the absence of head-to-head comparisons. To evaluate real-world outcomes for patients with ALK+ NSCLC receiving 1L ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), focusing on drug acquisition costs, health care utilization, and clinical outcomes. This retrospective observational cohort study used data from Optum's deidentified Clinformatics Data Mart Database (2016-2021). Patients were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes for lung cancer and ALK TKI pharmacy claims. Eligible patients were aged 18 years, with at least 6 months of continuous enrollment prior to the index date and at least 1 ALK TKI prescription fill. Health care resource utilization (proxied by claim counts) and associated costs (2024 US dollars) were measured per-patient-per-month (PPPM). Time to treatment discontinuation or death (TTD) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Among 696 patients, the 1L therapy distribution was crizotinib (n = 366), alectinib (n = 267), brigatinib (n = 22), ceritinib (n = 25), and lorlatinib (n = 16). Total PPPM costs were 28, 216 (SD: 29, 017). Average 30-day supply costs for ALK TKIs were 17, 766 (SD: 2, 797). Median OS was 25. 5 months (95% CI: 21. 1-32. 5), and median TTD for 1L therapy was 8. 0 months (95% CI: 6. 4-9. 6). Only 24. 3% of patients transitioned to another ALK TKI in a second-line (2L) setting, highlighting high discontinuation rates. Alectinib and lorlatinib were the most common 2L therapies. This study highlights the economic burden and variable clinical outcomes among patients with advanced ALK+ NSCLC. These real-world estimates inform cost-effectiveness analyses and clinical decision-making regarding treatment sequencing, particularly given uncertainty surrounding multiple preferred 1L options in clinical guidelines.

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