PMID- 18774870
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090114
LR  - 20181025
IS  - 1175-5652 (Print)
IS  - 1175-5652 (Linking)
VI  - 6
IP  - 1
DP  - 2008
TI  - The lifetime cost of hepatocellular carcinoma : a claims data analysis from a 
      medical centre in Taiwan.
PG  - 55-65
AB  - BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cancer in 
      Taiwan. For males in Taiwan, it is the most dangerous cancer, with both the 
      highest incidence and mortality rate. OBJECTIVE: To determine cancer-related 
      medical care costs for long-term survivors of HCC. METHODS: The estimation of the 
      lifetime cost was based on the insurer perspective and adopted an incidence-based 
      approach. Data was sourced from the 1999-2002 cancer registry statistics of 
      patients with HCC and the claims data of Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH). 
      In total there were 2873 HCC patients at TVGH. In addition to this data, the 
      research used population National Health Insurance claims data from the National 
      Health Research Institutes (1996-2002) as the comparison group. The probabilities 
      of survival, dying of cancer or dying of other causes were estimated using cancer 
      registry statistics. To estimate lifetime (10-year) cost, we divided the disease 
      process into three phases: initial, continuing and terminal. The cost of HCC was 
      calculated as the sum of the average cost of each phase. The expected lifetime 
      cost for treatment of an HCC patient was estimated by incorporating the 
      phase-specific costs with the survival and mortality rates. RESULTS: The results 
      showed that 895 patients survived <1 year, and treatment for each of these 
      patients cost on average New Taiwan dollars ($NT) 206 573 ($US 1 = $NT 33, year 
      2002 value) over this period. For those who survived > or =1 year, the terminal 
      phase of treatment resulted in the highest costs, $NT 237 032. On average, for 
      each patient, the initial phase cost was $NT 140 403 and the monthly cost for the 
      continuing phase was $NT 8687. For the average HCC patient, the 10-year lifetime 
      cost was $NT 418 554 (in nominal $NT). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that the 
      terminal phase cost the most out of the three treatment phases. The aggregate 
      lifetime cost of HCC is useful for health policy making and clinical decision 
      making.
FAU - Lang, Hui-Chu
AU  - Lang HC
AD  - Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, National Yang-Ming 
      University, Taipei, Taiwan. hclang@ym.edu.tw
FAU - Wu, Jaw-Ching
AU  - Wu JC
FAU - Yen, Sang-Hue
AU  - Yen SH
FAU - Lan, Chung-Fu
AU  - Lan CF
FAU - Wu, Shi-Liang
AU  - Wu SL
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - New Zealand
TA  - Appl Health Econ Health Policy
JT  - Applied health economics and health policy
JID - 101150314
SB  - IM
MH  - Aged
MH  - Algorithms
MH  - Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/*economics
MH  - Case-Control Studies
MH  - Female
MH  - *Health Care Costs
MH  - Hospitals, Veterans
MH  - Humans
MH  - Liver Neoplasms/*economics
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - National Health Programs/*economics
MH  - *Registries
MH  - Survivors
MH  - Taiwan
MH  - Terminal Care/economics
EDAT- 2008/09/09 09:00
MHDA- 2009/01/15 09:00
CRDT- 2008/09/09 09:00
PHST- 2008/09/09 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/01/15 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2008/09/09 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 615 [pii]
AID - 10.2165/00148365-200806010-00005 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2008;6(1):55-65. doi: 
      10.2165/00148365-200806010-00005.