Estimating the costs of chemotherapy-associated adverse event clusters

Abstract

Chemotherapy-associated adverse events (AEs) including neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia, mucositis and dehydration are common and often occur together in clusters. As a consequence, it makes little clinical sense to discuss the costs associated with an isolated AE, ignoring real-life clustering. This study estimates the costs of AEs based on a new approach-the clinically relevant AE cluster. The study population included all cancer patients receiving chemotherapy (N = 2,067) over 1 year at The University of Pennsylvania Health System. AE clusters were determined using algorithms based on the start and end dates of AEs and dates of chemotherapy administration. Models were developed to estimate the total and specific daily costs associated with the presence of AE clusters using loglinear variance estimation. The study found that the cost of a hospitalized day was $1,444 (95% CI 1,340-1,548). Neutropenia in isolation added another $130 (-278-538) to a hospitalized day while neutropenia plus thrombocytopenia increased daily costs by $461 (244-677) and the cluster of anemia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia added $840 per day (629-1,051). Anemia alone added $568 (346-789) to the hospital day and mucositis, in conjunction with other AEs, increased the daily hospital costs by $466 (201-732). Estimating the costs of chemotherapy-associated AEs can be achieved using clinically meaningful chemotherapy-associated AE clusters. Models incorporating clusters can be utilized to estimate the expected costs of chemotherapy associated AEs.

Cost Analysis of Cancer Side Effects Therapy in Cancer Patients in Rumah Sakit Prof. Dr. Margono Soekarjo Purwokerto

“…Besides, blood transfusion was also the most expensive compared other anemia therapies. Blood transfusion spent $568 to manage anemia because chemotherapy (Weiner et al, 2007).…”

Benefits of the Involvement of Dentists in Managing Oral Complications Among Patients With Oral Cavity and Oropharyngeal Cancer: An Analysis of Claims Data

“…8 Also, a number of studies in the literature investigated the economic implications and consequences of preventing and managing oral complications, providing the costs of treating oral mucositis, xerostomia, and osteonecrosis. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the impact of involving dentists during the course of complication treatments on treatment cost and duration, providing evidence to support more systemic approach in treating complications associated with patients with OC and OPC.…”