PCN59 Best Supportive Care Costs and Healthcare Use during END-of-Life Care in Terminal Cancer Patients in South Korea: A Retrospective Observational Study from Nationwide Claims Cohort DATA

Abstract

Because of symptoms that affect the quality of life, terminal cancer patients who cannot be treated require the best supportive care(BSC). This study aims to analyze the healthcare use and costs of terminal cancer patients receiving BSC to present the economic burden. This study is a retrospective observational study using the National Sample Cohort data from the Korean Health Insurance Service(NHIS-NSC) between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2015. We selected patients treated with one of the six cancers with the highest mortality rates as reported by the National Cancer Information Center. We defined the index date as the date of using the last anticancer drug based on the ATC code, and we followed up the patients from the index date to death. The follow-up period was limited to a maximum of 6 months. The average time to death after using the last anticancer drug was 72.26 days and the longest in the gallbladder and biliary cancer patients (87.90 days). The average total medical cost per patient was 6494.55 USD and was the highest in pancreatic cancer patients (7709.60 USD). The proportion of hospital admission was 86.36% which was the highest in the gallbladder and biliary cancer patients (92.68%) and was the lowest in the colon cancer patients (80.11%). The average length of hospital stay per patient was 33.66 days, and the average number of outpatient visits per patient was 6.26 times, which was the longest and the highest in pancreatic cancer patients (39.48 days and 7.74 times). Patients receiving BSC show differences in healthcare use and costs according to cancer. Therefore, customized supportive care should be performed to improve the quality of life of terminal cancer patients.