Dermatology Branch, NIAMS, NIH , Bethesda , MD , USA.
Cancer Biol Ther. 2019;20(10):1301-1303. doi: 10.1080/15384047.2019.1632132. Epub 2019 Jul 10.
The financial cost of cancer treatment in the United States is astronomically high and is expected to rise. The economic burden of cancer care increasingly falls on the patients. Patients thus experience "financial toxicity" of cancer care that can have catastrophic consequences on health and quality of life. Here we examine the results reported by Gilligan et al. in their study of financial toxicity in US cancer patients over 50 years old. This study provided corroborating and compelling data about the financial toxicity experienced by cancer patients. Many questions remain, however, about the consequences of financial toxicity and the full reality of cancer care economics in America.
美国癌症治疗的财务成本高得惊人,预计还会上升。癌症治疗的经济负担越来越多地落在患者身上。因此,患者会经历癌症治疗的“财务毒性”,这可能对健康和生活质量造成灾难性的后果。在这里,我们研究了吉利根等人在对美国 50 岁以上癌症患者的财务毒性研究中报告的结果。这项研究提供了关于癌症患者所经历的财务毒性的佐证和令人信服的数据。然而,关于财务毒性的后果以及美国癌症治疗经济学的全貌,仍有许多问题有待解决。