Patients with breast cancer are faced with £1,000 of out-of-pocket costs each year through no fault of their own, it has been claimed.
A study suggests that chemotherapy for breast cancer costs the UK economy more than £248m.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia say that better targeting of treatment could help avoid placing unnecessary costs upon patients, their caregivers and wider society.
The academics have put a figure on the cost of lost productivity, work absence, and personal costs such as paying for transport and parking for treatment, the cost of wigs and new bras, and over-the-counter medications.
The research team collected data from sources including UK cancer registries, clinical guidelines and published patient survey data. Patient and staff views were collected through semi-structured interviews.
Prof Richard Fordham, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and second most common cancer overall with two million cases per year worldwide.
He added: “Most patients require surgery, additional radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or a combination of these to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back. Around a third of breast cancer patients receive chemotherapy, but there are grey areas around which patients do and don’t need chemotherapy.
“As well as the cost of the treatment itself, there are many societal and personal costs associated with chemotherapy. These might include taking time off work, paying for hospital transport or parking, paying for over-the-counter medications or dietary supplements, the cost of wigs, headscarves and new bras, and the cost of informal care.
“But until now it has not been known what the total cost of all of this really is. We wanted to find out what the true total cost of chemotherapy is for patients, caregivers and wider society, for treating breast cancer in the UK.”
The report found that:
- The total cost of breast cancer chemotherapy in the UK economy is over £248m.
- Societal productivity losses of £141.4m – including £3.2m lost to premature mortality, and £133.7m lost to short-term (£28.7m) and long-term (£105m) work absence. Further costs include £3.4m associated with mortality losses from secondary malignancies due to adjuvant chemotherapy
- Out-of-pocket patient costs for chemotherapy total £4.2million, or an annual average of £1,100 per patient.
In addition, “costs for the emotional wellbeing” of carers could be as much as £82m. Emotional wellbeing reflects how much additional income would be required to offset a wellbeing loss.
