Direct burden of oncologic disease in a socialized health care system: Using acute myeloid leukemia as an example.

Abstract

e12040 Background: Portugal has a socialized national healthcare system (NHS), rated 12th overall by WHO (2000), that exempts oncologic patients from paying the direct costs of treatment. It has a per capita Gross Domestic Product of $22 699 (International Monetary Fund, 2011), less than 50% of the US, and was severely affected by the international Financial Crisis, requiring a bail-out; in this scenario, the state budget for health for 2012 is approximately $9900 million. Adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a relatively rare cancer, with standardized non-surgical inpatient treatment protocols (outside clinical trials) that are subject to little variation between centers and over time, characteristics that make it an ideal example to evaluate the impact of oncologic disease on a socialized healthcare system. Methods: We reviewed all new diagnoses of AML over a five-year period (2006 to 2010) in one of the 7 national centers that treat adult AML, to estimate the yearly expenditure with direct costs. Results: Over the period considered, 192 new adult cases were diagnosed (38.4 cases per year, 47% male), with a median age of 63 years; 43.8% were 65 or over. The 2009 National Directive assumes the daily cost of one hospitalization for uncomplicated adult “acute leukemia” [sic] to be $1250, with an average hospital stay of 12.2 days, amounting to $15 250; minor complications increase this to $2400 and 19.5 days, and major complications to $6 480 times 25 days, or $162 000. An allogeneic HSC transplant (allo-HSC) costs $9 605 daily, over 35.5 days, or $340 800. Assuming induction and one cycle of consolidation in under-65 cases, this Hospital would spend between $700 000 (no complications in either cycle) and $7 million (all cases with major complications in both cycles) on new cases per year. Additional cycles and allo-HSC push the estimate towards $1-10 million. Conclusions: While chronic metabolic, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases consume the bulk of resources, the burden of oncologic disease on a socialized NHS is marked. AML ideally exemplifies how a small number of patients can consume vast resources: as this estimate shows, Portugal could expect to spend $7-70 million of the 2012 health budget on new cases of AML alone.