Medical Resource Use and Medical Costs for Radiotherapy-Related Adverse Effects: A Systematic Review

Despite the need for a proper economic evaluation of new radiotherapies, the economic burden of radiotherapy-induced adverse effects remains unclear. A systematic review has been conducted to identify the existing evidence of healthcare resource use and costs related to radiotherapy-induced adverse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2022-05, Vol.14 (10), p.2444
Main Authors: Chen, Yi Hsuan, Molenaar, Dominique, Uyl-de Groot, Carin A, van Vulpen, Marco, Blommestein, Hedwig M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain cancer
Breast cancer
Cancer therapies
Cost control
Head & neck cancer
Health care
Mucositis
Patients
Population studies
Prostate cancer
Radiation therapy
Side effects
Systematic Review
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Summary:Despite the need for a proper economic evaluation of new radiotherapies, the economic burden of radiotherapy-induced adverse effects remains unclear. A systematic review has been conducted to identify the existing evidence of healthcare resource use and costs related to radiotherapy-induced adverse effects and also to provide recommendations for including this evidence in economic evaluations. This systematic review of healthcare resource use and/or medical costs related to radiotherapy-induced adverse effects was performed up until 2020, focusing on patients with head and neck cancer, brain cancer, prostate cancer, eye cancer and breast cancer. Resource use for treating the same adverse effects varied considerably across studies; for instance, the cost for mucositis ranged from USD 2949 to USD 17,244. This broad range could be related to differences in (1) severity of adverse effects in the study population, (2) study design, (3) cost estimation approach and (4) country and clinical practice. Our findings revealed unignorable differences for the same adverse effects, which implied that the potential for the economic burden of adverse effects was being overestimated or underestimated in economic evaluation for radiotherapy.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers14102444