Treatment patterns of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer in a large national U.S. claims-based data.

268 Background: FDA approved therapeutic choices for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) have evolved, including cytotoxic agents such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/ leucovorin or levoleucovorin (LV), capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan, biological agents such as bevacizumab, cetuximab, panitumumab, and aflibercept, as well as regorafenib, an oral multi-kinase inhibitor. The present study examined treatment patterns among patients with mCRC. Methods: We identified patients aged 18 or older with at least one primary CRC diagnosis between 01/01/2008 and 03/31/2012 in the MarketScan databases. mCRC patients were identified if claims indicated the presence of distant metastases (ICD-9-CM codes: 196.x, 197.0 to 197.4, 197.6 to 197.8, 198.x, and 199.0). All systemic treatment claims were extracted during 60 days after initiation of treatment. Patients were followed for more than 6 months, until end of enrollment or study end date (03/01/2013) to capture type and number of treatment lines (TLs). W...