Beschreibung:
<jats:p> 11 </jats:p><jats:p> Background: Childhood cancer presents unique issues regarding treatment, late effects, and long-term survival, but few studies have reported costs. Childhood cancer-specific costs are useful for economic evaluation and planning care. This study estimates total and cancer-attributable (net) medical costs for a population-based childhood cancer cohort in British Columbia, Canada, by phase of care. Methods: Patients diagnosed with cancer at ages 91 days to 14 years between 1995-2009 were identified from the British Columbia Cancer Registry, and followed to December 31, 2010. Data were linked with clinical and provincial administrative healthcare databases covering all medically-necessary costs. Total resource-specific costs (Canadian $ 2012) were estimated overall and for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, central nervous system (CNS), and “other” cancers. Net costs were calculated by subtracting healthcare costs for propensity-score-matched provincial samples of children without cancer from cancer patient costs. Results: Of the 1,440 cases, 33% had leukemia, with 23% CNS tumours, 10% lymphoma, 34% other cancers; 93% survived >=1 year. Overall pre-diagnosis mean costs per patient were $4,633, of which $4,555 was attributable to the cancer. Overall initial (first-year) mean costs were $97,780 ($97,254). Overall continuing phase mean costs were $12,441 ($12,006). Overall final year of life mean costs were $284,201 ($283,652). Cancer types with highest costs were CNS (pre-diagnosis), leukemia (first-year), “other” cancers (continuing), and lymphoma (end-of-life). Virtually all inpatient hospitalizations were cancer-related, representing ~41% of pre-diagnosis, ~71% of first-year, ~57% of continuing, and ~73% of end-of-life costs. Conclusions: Management of childhood cancer is costly, and is higher than for adolescent cancer in all phases of care, reflecting greater morbidity and treatment complexity. Hospitalizations were the largest driver of costs in all post-diagnosis phases of care. Costs in the continuing phase, including surveillance and care for late effects, were 13% of first-year phase costs. </jats:p>