Evaluating the Indirect Costs of Care Associated with Salvage Chemotherapy for Relapsed and Refractory Aggressive-Histology Lymphoma: A Subset Analysis of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) LY.12 Clinical Trial

Background: The randomized CCTG LY.12 trial demonstrated that gemcitabine, cisplatin and dexamethasone (GDP) was non-inferior to dexamethasone, cytarabine, cisplatin (DHAP), with or without rituximab, in patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) prior to autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) [ Crump JCO 2014]. A cost-utility analysis also proved GDP to be associated with both lower direct costs and similar quality-adjusted outcomes, and as such, is the preferred salvage regimen in this patient population [ Cheung JNCI 2015]. We conducted an analysis of such costs (lost productivity, paid and unpaid caregiver time) based on the trial data.