Stage-specific treatment costs for cervical cancer in the United Kingdom.

In order to examine the relationship between stage at initial diagnosis and management costs for cervical cancer, a detailed cost audit over 5 years was conducted on a sample of patients diagnosed in 1990 in one U.K. region. The mean costs of managing pre-invasive carcinoma (386 Pounds) were found to be significantly lower than those of stage 1 invasive carcinoma (6623 Pounds) and both were lower than the costs of invasive cancer at stages 2-4 (10,910 Pounds, 10,579 Pounds and 11,035 Pounds, respectively). A comparison of management costs for cervical cancer with those of breast cancer by stage revealed both that the former are invariably higher and that the cost-by-stage profiles for the two diseases are dissimilar.