ArticleBMC public health2025
Changes in prescribing patterns and access to immune checkpoint inhibitors in german lung cancer patients - a claims data analysis.
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecently, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have driven profound changes in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Their rapid integration into clinical routine is crucial for patient outcomes. However, prescribing patterns may not change immediately after authorization. Therefore, in this study we investigated factors associated with the adoption of ICI therapy for patients with advanced lung cancer in Germany following the initial regulatory approval.
methodsIn this study we used German health insurance claims of 36,727 lung cancer patients diagnosed in 2015–2016. We included pre-treated patients with advanced disease. Factors potentially influencing the adoption of ICI therapies were analyzed, including demographics, residence type, hospital size, comorbidities, and metastasis location. Changes in prescribing patterns for ICI therapies were evaluated over three years using population-at-risk calculations with statistical analysis conducted using techniques including multivariate Cox regression.
resultsOverall, we identified 9,726 pre-treated patients with advanced lung cancer in our dataset. Of these, 285 received ICI therapy during the course of the disease. These initial patients receiving ICI therapy were significantly younger and were more often treated in bigger hospitals. At first, uptake of ICI therapy was slow but started to increase from 1.1% in 01/2017 to 8.6% in 12/2019. Multivariate Cox regression showed that being treated in a bigger hospital (HR = 1.49, p = 0.001), having M1a vs. M1b or c metastases (HR = 2.65, p < 0.0001), being diagnosed in 2016 vs. 2015 (HR = 3.39, p < 0.0001), and having a comorbidity of COPD (HR = 1.46, p = 0.004), led to higher, faster adoption of ICI therapy.
conclusionIntroducing novel therapies necessitates a deliberate focus on disseminating information and enhancing accessibility across healthcare facilities of varying sizes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.