Souliotis Kyriakos, Kani Chara, Marioli Androniki, Kamboukou Aggeliki, Prinou Aikaterini, Syrigos Konstantinos, Markantonis Sophia
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece.
Health Policy Institute, Maroussi, Attica, Greece.
Health Serv Res Manag Epidemiol. 2019 Apr 10;6:2333392819841223. doi: 10.1177/2333392819841223. eCollection 2019 Jan-Dec.
Lung cancer exerts a significant societal and health-care-related economic burden and chemotherapy drugs constitute a major factor of total direct cost. The aim of the present study was to assess the direct health-care cost of lung cancer in Greece by conducting a retrospective analysis on the last 6 months of life.
The present study was based on both the medical data and costs of treatment of deceased adult patients who suffered from terminal stage IIIB/IV lung cancer (non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer) during the last 6 months of their life. The study's protocol was approved by the Hospital's Research Ethics Committee. Costs included outpatient (outpatient services) and inpatient (inpatient services) costs. Descriptive statistics were mainly used for statistical analysis.
The files of 144 patients were analyzed. The total cost of health-care services for the study population during the last 6 months of life was attributed by 57% to inpatient services, whereas chemotherapy costs (74%) comprised the largest proportion of the total inpatient cost. The highest expenditure for outpatient services was attributed to concomitant medication (59%), followed by the cost of tests (21%) and radiotherapy (20%).
The results of our study indicate that both inpatient and outpatient costs were substantial. The main inpatient and outpatient cost drivers were chemotherapy and concomitant medication, respectively. A more comprehensive nationwide study would be useful to validate our results and to include also indirect costs of cancer care in Greece.
肺癌给社会和医疗保健带来了巨大的经济负担，化疗药物是总直接成本的主要因素。本研究的目的是通过对患者生命最后6个月进行回顾性分析，评估希腊肺癌的直接医疗成本。
本研究基于已故成年患者的医疗数据和治疗费用，这些患者在生命的最后6个月患有晚期IIIB/IV期肺癌（非小细胞肺癌和小细胞肺癌）。该研究方案已获医院研究伦理委员会批准。成本包括门诊（门诊服务）和住院（住院服务）费用。描述性统计主要用于统计分析。
分析了144例患者的病历。研究人群在生命最后6个月的医疗服务总成本中，57%归因于住院服务，而化疗费用（74%）占住院总成本的最大比例。门诊服务的最高支出归因于辅助用药（59%），其次是检查费用（21%）和放疗费用（20%）。
我们的研究结果表明，住院和门诊费用都很高。住院和门诊费用的主要驱动因素分别是化疗和辅助用药。开展一项更全面的全国性研究，将有助于验证我们的结果，并纳入希腊癌症护理的间接成本。
