Fighting Liver Cancer Takes Big Financial Toll: Study

By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter

Out-of-pocket costs can leave Medicare patients with the most common type ofliver cancerin financial distress.

While Medicare payments in the first year after diagnosis with hepatocellularcarcinoma(HCC) exceeded $65,000, out-of-pocket costs were more than $10,000, a new study found.

“As has been shown for othercancertypes, we found patients withlivercancersuffer from highcancer-related financial burden,” said study co-author Dr. Amit Singal, a professor of internal medicine at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.

"Financial toxicity ofcancertherapy can negatively impact patients, resulting in medical debt and even bankruptcy for some patients," Singal said in a university news release.

The researchers said the cost ofliver cancertreatment has been little studied.

Patients have had the benefit of several new treatments in the past decade, including new surgeries,radiation-based therapies and immunotherapies. While they can be effective, they are also difficult to afford.

Researchers used data from a Medicare database to examine first-year treatment costs for 4,525 patients ages 68 and older who were diagnosed withlivercancerbetween 2011 and 2015.

They then compared costs for patients with HCC with those for a matched set of patients with livercirrhosis. (Medication claims were not included because they were not available for all patients.)

The researchers found that patients with livercancerhad significantly higher inpatient, outpatient and doctor costs compared with thecirrhosis-only patients. In the first year of treatment, median out-of-pocket costs were more than $7,000 higher than the costs for thecirrhosispatients, meaning half were higher.

Patients with early-stage liver cancer had lower costs.

那些共存条件下,如non-alcoholicfatty liver diseaseand fluid in the abdomen, had higher costs.

对于大多数患者癌症诊断when it is beyond an early stage, researchers noted. Non-alcoholic fattyliver diseaseis an increasingly common underlying factor for liver cancer, they said.

“Our data highlight that HCC care not only causes considerable financialstresson the health care system but directly for patients and their family members, who suffer from high out-of-pocket costs," Singal said. "There is a clear need for policy interventions and financial support systems in this patient population.”

By 2030, total cost of cancer treatment in the United States is expected to reach $250 billion.

Liver cancer deaths are also accelerating, partly due to detection in later stages. Liver cancer is expected to be the third-leading cause of cancer deaths by 2040, Singal said.

The study was published inClinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPreventionhas more on liver cancer.

SOURCE: UT Southwestern Medical Center, news release, Jan. 30, 2023

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

SLIDESHOW

Skin Cancer Symptoms, Types, ImagesSee Slideshow