Older people in clinical trials for cancer didn’t have significantly more emergency room or observational visits compared to those not in trials, but they underwent more hospitalizations, according to new data.
The report aimed to look at how people with cancer in clinical trials do compared to those not enrolled in trials when it comes to unplanned healthcare usage and hospice enrollment. Results were presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting from May 31 to June 4.
The US Oncology Network team looked at 121,717 people in 11 states from 323 clinics receiving cancer care. Of them, 94% were over the age of 65. All of the participants were participating in the oncology care model (OCM), which is an alternative payment model pilot from CMS to promote quality care and reduced costs.
“There is a perception that older adults with cancer who take part in clinical trials have suboptimal end-of-life outcomes or that participation in clinical trials may adversely impact cost of care and performance in novel payment models such as the OCM, a perception that results in clinical trial access barriers,” Puneeth Indurlal, MD, an author and senior director of Care Transformation for The Network, said in a statement.
Specifically, 23.4% of people enrolled in clinical trials had emergency room or observational visits compared to 22.3% of those not in clinical trials. Of clinical trial enrollees, 25.9% were hospitalized compared to 21.9% of patients receiving usual care. Clinical trial participants weren’t less likely to enroll in hospice three or more days prior to their death compared to patients receiving usual care, the data showed. People in clinical trials had significantly higher per-episode savings against the benchmark price ($4,816) compared to patients receiving usual care ($826).
“The findings demonstrate that while more hospitalizations were observed, clinical trial participation is not associated with suboptimal end of life care when it comes to hospice enrollment and duration or increased emergency room and healthcare utilization. In fact, clinical trial participants saw relative cost savings against the benchmark compared to patients receiving usual care in the OCM,” Indurlal said.
