Abstract

ARROSPIDE, Arantzazu et al. Cost of Breast Cancer Treatment by Clinical Stage in the Basque Country, Spain. Rev. Esp. Salud Publica [online]. 2015, vol.89, n.1, pp.93-97. ISSN 2173-9110.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1135-57272015000100010.

Background: The burden of breast cancer is important for the healthcare system. In the context of the evaluation of the breast cancer screening program in the Basque Country it is important to determine the unitary costs related to diagnosis as well as the treatment costs depending on the clinical stage at detection. The main objective was to calculate the total cost and the components of breast cancer (BC) treatment depending on the clinical stage by 2011. Methods: The estimated costs include BC diagnosis as so as to initial treatment and follow-up, based on resource consumption and unitary costs of the Basque Health Services. Micro-costing technique was applied based on the clinical guidelines. Results: Our model showed the estimated loss of productivity due to premature The initial cost was 9.838€ for the stage 0, 17.273€ for stage I, 22.145€ for stage II and 28.776€ for stage III. The follow up annual cost was 172€ for the stage 0, 908€ for stage I, 994€ for stage II and 1.166€ for stage III. The annual cost for stage IV was 17879€. Conclusions: Chemotherapy determines the greatest percentage of BC costs. The two main drivers of the total cost of breast cancer are the initial treatment of stages I to III and the cost of stage IV, the latter reaching € 50,061per patient.

Keywords : Costs and cost analysis; Breast neoplasms; Early detection of cancer; Neoplasm staging; Drug therapy.

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