We calculated the costs of initial cancer treatment (resection, radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer therapy [SACT]) by stage at diagnosis. for breast, lung, prostate, colon and rectal cancers diagnosed in England between 2016 and 2018.
The increasing burden of cancer has economic implications for the healthcare system in England.
Breast, colon and rectal cancers treated with resection, radiotherapy or SACT had increasing costs with later stage at diagnosis
Costs for lung and prostate cancers were lower at stages 1 and 4 compared to stages 2 and 3
Surgery and SACT were the most expensive treatments
Radiotherapy and SACT costs showed little change across stages 1–3
radiotherapy costs decreased in stage 4, while SACT costs increased. This likely reflects more palliative radiotherapy at stage 4, which often involves shorter courses of treatment
The overall cost of treatment may be lower at stage 4 because:
most curative treatments are ineffective for stage 4 cancers
patients may choose not to receive treatment, or be unsuitable for treatment due to current health or previous treatments
patients may only tolerate or survive a short course of treatment
a higher proportion of patients receiving treatment at stage 4 may be taking part in a clinical trial for palliative SACT and therefore excluded from our analysis.
*Across all cancers included, the average cost of treatments were:
breast - £9,450
rectal - £8,988
colon - £7,437
lung - £4,054
prostate - £3,166
*The full paper provides breakdowns of costs by resection, radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy [SACT].
Colon and rectal cancers combined had an average total cost of £7,865. This included patients receiving a single treatment type, a combination of treatments, or none of the included treatments.
Costs also varied by age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation and comorbidities. For example, lung and prostate cancers showed lower costs with higher deprivation, while other cancers showed no clear trend.
Understanding the costs of cancer treatment is important for future planning of cancer services.
Read the full article on the Springer websiteLorna Wills, Diana Nagarwalla, Clare Pearson, Sean McPhail, Rose Hinchliffe, Ben Sharpless, Fahmina Fardus-Reid, Lyndsy Ambler, Samantha Harrison, Jon Shelton.
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