OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA — Cancer treatment costs have increased significantly in Ontario — Canada’s largest province — over 10 years, especially for breast, colorectal and lung cancers, according to new research on cancer trends published in CMAJ Open.http://cmajopen.ca/content/1/
Understanding trends in cancer treatments and costs can help health care systems plan for future needs.
Researchers looked at data on seven types of common cancer in Ontario over 10 years, including melanoma, breast (female), testicular, prostate, thyroid, lung and colorectal cancers. The study included 20 821 patients aged 19 to 44 years and 178 797 patients over age 45, of whom 101 426 were aged 65 or older.
Colorectal and lung cancers were the most expensive cancers to treat in the first year after diagnosis followed by breast cancer. However, the largest increases in costs were for melanoma, breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancers.
These costs (in 2009 dollars) include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, cancer-related surgery, hospitalization and home care in the first year after diagnosis.
“The increase we saw in the use of home care, especially among older patients, is not exclusive to cancer,” writes Dr. Claire de Oliveira, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. “Postacute care is typically used for patients with cancer in the first 30 days after they are discharged from hospital.”
Some trends over the 10-year study period:
- Breast cancer was the most common cancer in patients under age 45 (44%) followed by thyroid cancer (26%). Of this age group, 76% were women.
- Prostate (36%) and breast cancer (31%) were most common in older patients.
- Mean costs for breast cancer and colorectal cancers more than doubled. Breast cancer costs went from $15 460 to $35 977 for younger patients with breast cancer and $12 909 to $29 362 for older patients. Colorectal cancer costs increased from $24 769 to $43 964.
- Treatment costs for prostate and lung cancer increased 50%, from $11 490 and $22 037 to $15 170 and $34 473 respectively.
- Chemotherapy costs for treating breast cancer in both age groups increased five-fold (from $2286 to $11 834 for patients aged 19 to 44 and from $791 to $5978 for patients aged 45 or older).
- Radiation costs for breast cancer treatment tripled in both age groups.
- Costs for melanoma treatment tripled from $3581 to $8934.
The researchers explain that the increased costs are due to more patients receiving adjuvant therapy — chemotherapy and radiation to keep cancer from returning after surgery — as well as home care. Hospitalization accounted for the largest costs in the initial phase after diagnosis.
“It is important to determine the drivers behind this increase as costs continue to rise,” write the authors. “Chemotherapy will likely place a strain on Ontario’s health care budget; however, costs could be reduced in some ways. For example, personalized medicine and the use of gene expression profiling among women with breast cancer have the potential to be cost-saving.”
Read the full research paper: Trends in use and cost of initial cancer treatment in Ontario: a population-based descriptive studyhttp://cmajopen.ca/content/1/
About CMAJ Open
CMAJ Open isan online open-access journal that publishes high-quality medical and health research, without the need for authors to demonstrate high impact. Content is available online to readers at no charge. It comes from the same family as the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).
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Media contact for interviews: Michael Torres, Senior media relations specialist, Public Affairs , CAMH, tel: 416-595-6015,media@camh.ca for Dr. Claire de Oliveira
General media contact: Kim Barnhardt, Senior Strategist, Communications and Partnerships, CMAJ/CMAJ Open, 613-520-7116 x2224,kim.barnhardt@cmaj.ca