Use of Novel National Data Sets to Monitor Chemotherapy Use and Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Purpose: Te Aho o Te Kahu, the New Zealand Cancer Control Agency, is establishing a systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) database (Anti-Cancer Therapy-Nationally Organized Workstream [ACT-NOW]) which can be linked to other national health data collections. In this article, we explore the application of ACT-NOW data in the monitoring of uptake and outcomes after the public funding of pemetrexed in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Methods: We used the ACT-NOW collection to identify patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer, who were treated with first-line platinum-based doublet chemotherapy over an 8-year period.