Costs of cancer by stage at diagnosis
Overview
Stage at cancer diagnosis is highly prognostic, influencing eligibility for curative treatment and overall survival. Even among the most fatal cancer types, survival can vary significantly by stage at diagnosis. Understanding the cost of incident cancers by stage is critical for valuing cancer prevention and early diagnosis initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS).The aim of this project was to describe hospital care costs by stage of disease for eight cancer types: colorectal, head & neck, liver & bile duct, lung, lymphoma, oesophageal, ovarian and pancreatic for patients diagnosed aged 50-79.
This was undertaken using cancer registration data linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT), Radiotherapy dataset (RTDS) and Diagnostic Imaging Dataset (DID) for cancers diagnosed between 2014 and 2017. Cost estimates were assigned using the NHS Health Resource Grouper (HRG).
The results showed variation in cost by stage of disease depending on site with two main patterns: Overall costs were highest at stage 4 for colorectal, head and neck, lymphoma and ovarian cancers, whereas for liver, lung, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers costs were highest at stage 2. Healthcare costs were highest in the initial treatment and end of life phases of care.
Timeframe
2023-2025
Outcomes
Data and methodology were presented at the following conferences:
Collaboration
GRAIL Bio UK Ltd, Katie Spencer (Leeds University & NDRS),