Wu, Bingcao

PURPOSE Teclistamab is initiated with a step-up dosing (SUD) schedule to mitigate the risk of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). Early teclistamab users commonly received SUD in a hospital setting. This study aimed to evaluate safety and health care resource utilization (HRU) in real-world patients with multiple myeloma who initiated teclistamab SUD in an outpatient setting. METHODS This was a retrospective study using Mayo Clinic's electronic medical records from October 26, 2022, to October 31, 2023. Patient characteristics were summarized for all patients treated with teclistamab and separately for patients who started SUD outpatient. SUD pattern, safety, HRU, and post-SUD dosing schedule were described in patients with complete SUD. RESULTS At data cutoff, 65 patients received ≥1 teclistamab dose, including 58 patients who initiated SUD outpatient (median age, 69.2 years; male, 63.8%; White, 89.7%). Among 57 patients who completed SUD in an outpatient setting, all received premedications on the days of teclistamab administrations per label recommendation; 18 (31.6%) developed CRS (13 grade 1, four grade 2, and one grade 4) and two developed ICANS (one each with grade 2 and 4). All CRS and ICANS resolved with supportive care and all patients continued treatment. Eighteen patients were admitted to the hospital for CRS treatment, with a median CRS-related hospital stay of 2 days per admission. Most (60%) doses during SUD required <1 hour clinic time between administration and checkout. Post-SUD, clinic time for treatment doses decreased to <30 minutes for most doses (82%). CONCLUSION Outcomes of this study support outpatient administration as a safe and feasible option for teclistamab SUD to potentially reduce HRU and improve patient experiences.

Background Teclistamab, the first-in-class B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) x CD3 bispecific therapy was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of triple-class exposed relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM) after ≥ 4 prior lines of therapy. Because of the risk of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), the step-up dosing (SUD) of teclistamab is commonly administered in an inpatient setting among early users. Mayo Clinic has a well-established hospital-based outpatient program for novel immunotherapies. Since the FDA approval, teclistamab SUD has been administered as part of this program. Each dose of the SUD is administered in an outpatient setting, and the patient is given a remote monitoring kit to regularly measure vital signs and stay connected with the command center for signs and symptoms of CRS and ICANS throughout the entire SUD period. This study aimed to evaluate early safety outcomes and healthcare resource utilization during SUD in real-world (RW) patients who initiated teclistamab under the outpatient administration model across 3 Mayo Clinic locations (Rochester, MN, Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ, Jacksonville, FL). Methods This was a retrospective study using Mayo Clinic's electronic medical records from October 26, 2022 to June 12, 2023. Eligible patients were adults diagnosed with MM who had initiated commercial teclistamab at any of the 3 Mayo Clinic locations. Patient characteristics, rates and severity of CRS and ICANS, as well as healthcare resource utilization during SUD were described. Time between teclistamab administration and patient check-out was reported for SUD and treatment doses, respectively. Results At the time of data cutoff, 39 patients received at least 1 teclistamab dose across the 3 locations (median age 67.2 years; male: 74%; White: 87%; non-Hispanic: 92%), including 36 patients who initiated teclistamab SUD directly in an outpatient setting. A total of 8 (21%) patients had MM with high-risk cytogenetics and 14 (36%) had prior exposure to other BCMA-targeted therapies. Prevalent comorbidities prior to receiving teclistamab included anemia (77%), hypertension (56%), lytic bone lesions (51%), neutropenia (49%), and hypogammaglobulinemia (41%). Renal impairment or failure was observed in 31% of the patients (Table 1). Almost all patients received acetaminophen (95%), diphenhydramine (95%), and dexamethasone (92%) as pre-medications on the same day as teclistamab administrations during SUD. Of the teclistamab doses with clinic time data, the majority (62%) of doses during SUD required 30 minutes to 1 hour of clinic time for monitoring between administration and check-out. After SUD, the clinic time for weekly treatment doses decreased to less than 30 minutes for most (79%) doses (Figure 1). In patients who completed SUD by data cutoff (n = 37), most patients (70%) received the SUD on a 3-day dose interval (i.e., day 1, 4, 7). The mean time between the first and third doses was 6.3 days. Among the 37 patients with complete SUD, 12 (32%) developed CRS. The highest CRS grade was grade 1 for 10 patients; 1 patient had a grade 2 CRS, and 1 patient had a grade 4 CRS. The patient with grade 4 CRS concurrently decompensated during a dialysis session and all symptoms were considered for CRS grading. A total of 6 patients had recurrent CRS, including 1 patient with 3 events during SUD. All patients who developed CRS during SUD (n=12) were admitted to the hospital for treatment, with a total of 19 admissions across all patients and a median length of stay of 1.7 days per admission. Among patients who were admitted for CRS (n=12), the majority were treated with acetaminophen (92%), diphenhydramine (83%) and dexamethasone (83%); tocilizumab was given to the 2 patients with CRS grade 2 or higher. Only 1 ICANS event (grade 2) was observed in 1 patient during SUD, after dose 3, and the patient was admitted to the hospital for treatment. Conclusion This study evaluated early RW safety outcomes of teclistamab under an outpatient administration model and found the CRS rate and severity to be comparable with other RW evidence generated from various data sources. Outcomes related to teclistamab SUD from Mayo Clinic supported the safety and feasibility of outpatient administration model as a potential option to reduce healthcare resource utilization and improve treatment experiences.

Background: With the introduction of the Oncology Care Model, which aims to provide higher quality, more coordinated oncology care at the same or lower cost to Medicare, physician practices are increasingly being held accountable for performance and financial measures.1 Urgent care (emergency room [ER] visits and hospitalizations) is known to contribute a significant proportion of healthcare costs, and while there has been a focus on drug costs, little is known about the utilization or economic impact of urgent care among multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Objective: To identify the primary reasons and economic burden of ER visits and hospitalizations among newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) patients during first line of therapy (LOT1). Methods: Patients from the Optum Clinformatics Extended DataMart - Date of Death database (Optum DOD) with ≥1 medical or pharmacy claim for an NCCN listed MM treatment from 7/1/11 to 3/31/2018 (index date) were included if they had diagnosis code for MM (ICD9/10 code 203/C90) and ≥6-months continuous enrollment without MM treatment prior to index date. Patients were followed until death, end of eligibility, or end of study (9/30/2018), whichever occurred first. The top 20 most common primary diagnoses (PDx) for ER visits and for hospitalizations were identified separately for patients who received stem cell transplant (SCT) or not (nSCT) during LOT1. Total costs and per-patient-per-month (PPPM) costs of ER visits and hospitalizations for each PDx were reported. Results: Total 3,099 patients met inclusion criteria, including 2,761 (89.1%) nSCT and 338 (10.9%) SCT patients. nSCT patients were older than SCT patients (median nSCT=72 years vs SCT=62 years, p < 0.0001). The most common treatment regimens among nSCT were bortezomib in combination with dexamethasone (dex) (34%) followed by lenalidomide in combination with dex (27.4%). The most common treatment regimen among SCT were bortezomib in combination with lenalidomide and dex (46%) followed by bortezomib in combination with chemotherapy (18.3%). Median duration of LOT1 was 5.1 months among all patients, with median 11.2 months among SCT vs 4.5 months among nSCT, p < 0.0001). Among all patients, (Table 1) there was a total of 1,645 ER visits and 3,385 hospitalizations with a total cost of $3,729,208 and $56,751,758, respectively, and a PPPM cost of $146 and $2,220 for ER visits and hospitalizations, respectively. Among nSCT, there were 1,339 (81% of the total) ER visits and 2,776 (82% of the total) hospitalizations with a total cost of $3,063,727 and $39,763,095, respectively, and a PPPM cost of $151 and $1,955 for ER visits and hospitalizations, respectively. Among SCT, there were 306 (19% of the total) ER visits and 609 (18% of the total) hospitalizations, with a total cost of $665,481 and $16,988,663, respectively, and a PPPM cost of $127 and $3,253 for ER visits and hospitalizations, respectively. The most common PDx for hospitalizations among the entire cohort was 'MM, without mention of having achieved remission' with 769 hospitalizations for a total cost of $19,299,593 and a PPPM cost of $7,112. This same PDx was the most common among nSCT with 449 (58%) hospitalizations for a total cost of $7,551,282 and a PPPM cost of $9,292; as well as for SCT with 320 (42%) hospitalizations for a total cost of $11,748,760 and a PPPM cost of $4,435. This was also the most common PDx for ER visits among nSCT and SCT. For hospitalizations, the second most common PDx among the entire cohort and among nSCT was 'shortness of breath' while for SCT it was 'administration of antineoplastic chemotherapy'. The second most common PDx overall and for nSCT for ER visits was 'chest pain' and for SCT patients was 'musculoskeletal dysfunction (Segmental and somatic dysfunction of cervical region)'. Conclusions: In this analysis, NDMM patients experienced frequent ER visits and hospitalizations over a median of ~5 months for a total cost of more than $60 million, with most of the cost among nSCT patients. The most common PDx was related to MM. Even though some hospitalizations for the SCT patients may have been for the SCT procedure itself, the economic burden of urgent care for MM patients remains very high. Additional research to assess the impact of newer treatments on urgent care visits among NDMM, identify patients at high risk of urgent care visits may provide insight into the potential for developing cost-saving interventions to reduce the utilization of urgent care. Disclosures Maiese: Janssen: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zhu:Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC: Other: contractor for Janssen. Wu:Janssen: Employment, Equity Ownership. Chen:Janssen: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ailawadhi:Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Cellectar: Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding.