Agner Pereira Lana1, Julian Perelman2, Eli Iola Gurgel Andrade3, Francisco Acúrcio4, Augusto Afonso Guerra4, Mariângela Leal Cherchiglia3. 1. Postgraduate Program in Public Health, Medicine School, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil. Electronic address: agner.pl@gmail.com. 2. National School of Public Health, NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. 3. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Medicine School, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil. 4. Department of Social Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the federal government expenditures with oncological care, for the most incident cancer types among the Brazilian population, using registries of all patients treated by the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS) between 2001 and 2015. We adopted the formal healthcare sector perspective in this study, with the costs per patient estimated by the reimbursement price paid by the Ministry of Health to service providers. METHODS: The costs were adjusted by the follow-up time for each patient. We performed multivariate regression analysis using ordinary least squares. We analyzed 952 960 patients aged ≥19 years who underwent cancer treatment, between 2001 and 2015, for breast, prostate, colorectal, cervix, lung, and stomach cancers. RESULTS: The annual mean costs per patient (in USD purchasing power parity) was $9572.30, varying from $5782.10 for breast cancer to $16 656 for cervical cancer. Several variables predicted higher costs of cancer treatment, namely: to be male (+14%), with younger age ranges at treatment initiation, resident in the Northeast region (+26%), treated for colorectal cancer (+482%), with treatment initiation from 2010 to 2014, tumor stages III and IV (III: +182%; IV: +165%), hospitalization for other reasons besides the cancer treatment, and suffering from some a comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Given the forthcoming Brazilian demographic changes, which strongly suggest that the economic burden of cancer is about to increase in the near future, our estimates provide relevant information to produce useful projections about future cancer-related costs.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the federal government expenditures with oncological care, for the most incident cancer types among the Brazilian population, using registries of all patients treated by the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS) between 2001 and 2015. We adopted the formal healthcare sector perspective in this study, with the costs per patient estimated by the reimbursement price paid by the Ministry of Health to service providers. METHODS: The costs were adjusted by the follow-up time for each patient. We performed multivariate regression analysis using ordinary least squares. We analyzed 952 960 patients aged ≥19 years who underwent cancer treatment, between 2001 and 2015, for breast, prostate, colorectal, cervix, lung, and stomach cancers. RESULTS: The annual mean costs per patient (in USD purchasing power parity) was $9572.30, varying from $5782.10 for breast cancer to $16 656 for cervical cancer. Several variables predicted higher costs of cancer treatment, namely: to be male (+14%), with younger age ranges at treatment initiation, resident in the Northeast region (+26%), treated for colorectal cancer (+482%), with treatment initiation from 2010 to 2014, tumor stages III and IV (III: +182%; IV: +165%), hospitalization for other reasons besides the cancer treatment, and suffering from some a comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Given the forthcoming Brazilian demographic changes, which strongly suggest that the economic burden of cancer is about to increase in the near future, our estimates provide relevant information to produce useful projections about future cancer-related costs.
Authors: Leandro F M Rezende; Gerson Ferrari; Luciana Ribeiro Bahia; Roger Dos Santos Rosa; Michelle Quarti Machado da Rosa; Romulo Cristovão de Souza; Dong Hoon Lee; Edward Giovannucci; José Eluf-Neto Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2021-06-22 Impact factor: 3.295