Study: Cancer treatment costs can vary widely

IN DEPTH REVIEW OF RESEARCH

Study background:

Cost of treatment is an important subject that many patients want their healthcare providers to address. This is especially important for patients who have the choice between similar treatment options. HER2+ and HER2- breast cancer patients have quite a few options to choose from—the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines identify 12 acceptable chemotherapy regimens for HER2- breast cancer patients and 9 acceptable chemotherapy regimens for HER2+ breast cancer patients. Unfortunately, not a lot of cost information is available for healthcare providers to share with their patients to help them with these decisions.

Sharon Giordano and colleagues from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center published work in 2016 in the journal Cancer to get a better idea of breast cancer treatment costs for breast cancer patients.     

Researchers of this study wanted to know:

What are the costs for U.S. breast cancer treatment from both the insurance companies’ and patients’ perspective?

Population(s) looked at in the study:

The 14,643 women in this study were 18-years-old or older and had breast cancer diagnosed between 2008 and 2012. About 24% received therapy that included the trastuzumab (Herceptin), a targeted therapy for HER2+ cancer, while 77% received non-trastuzumab regimens including taxanes such as docetaxel, platinum-based drugs such as carboplatin, and anthracyclines.  Women in the study also had surgery, and, where appropriate, hormone therapy.  All women in the study had private insurance and received treatment within 3 months of diagnosis. Costs were evaluated for up to 18 months after diagnosis.

Study findings: 

1. The median insurance payments for patients who have private insurance and received one of the trastuzumab-based treatment (the chemotherapy for HER2+ breast cancer) was $160,590. The median out-of-pocket payment was $3,381.
   • 25% of patients paid more than $5,604 out-of-pocket and 10% paid more than $8,384 out-of-pocket.  This means that about half of the patients paid more than $3,381 and about half paid less.
2. The median insurance payments for patients who have private insurance and received one of the nontrastuzumab treatment (for patients with HER2- breast cancer) was $82,260. The median out-of-pocket payment was $2,724. This means that about half of the patients paid more than $2,724 and about half paid less.
   • 25% of patients paid more than $4,712 out-of-pocket and 10% paid more than $7,041 out-of-pocket.
3. Costs varied within similar therapy regimens. For example, for patients who received a trastuzumab-based treatment, the median insurance payment costs differed by about $20,000.

Limitations:

This study does not include information on patients without insurance—these patients face considerably higher out-of-pocket costs.

Because this study used an 18-month time frame, the researchers could not estimate total costs of breast cancer care. For example, patients who underwent breast reconstruction beyond the 18-month window or may have received hormone therapy for 5-10 years. And because the source data used for this study were not linked to any cancer registry data, researchers were unable to look at the patients’ cancer stage, race/ethnicity or tumor characteristics.

Finally, the researchers were unable to look at newer drugs that have been released since the data was collected.                       

Conclusions:

This study suggests that breast cancer chemotherapy costs vary widely. More work needs to be done so healthcare providers can provide patients with accurate cost information. Until this happens, patients should have frank discussions with their healthcare providers about cost and how it will affect them.

Posted 11/22/16

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