Magdalena Ściesińska, Anna Sinkiewicz, Mirosława Kowalkowska, Grzegorz Grześk

Laryngeal cancer treatment cost-effectiveness
2022-06-30

Obtaining progress in medicine is a costly thing, especially In oncology where it seems to be the most expensive. Laryngeal cancer is the second most common cancer of the respiratory system after lung cancer. Treatment is extremely difficult medically, psychologically and economically. The aim of the study was a pharmacoeconomic analysis of selected medical procedures for the treatment of laryngeal cancer, as well as a comparison of health care costs between the years with different approaches to therapy. The benefits of implementing such economic analyzes for health technology assessment will bring benefits not only to service providers and payers, but also to patients and the health care system, mainly through an increase in rational resource management.

In a pharmacoeconomic cost - effectiveness analysis CEA, the medical and economic data of patients with laryngeal cancer, treated in Otolaryngology Department, Oncological Laryngology and Maxillo-Facial Surgery of Jan Biziel University Hospital no 2 in Bydgoszcz in years 2014 and 2019 were taken into account.

In the interpretation of the results concerning costs and benefits the following ratios were used: Cost - Benefit Ratio (CBR); Net Present Value (NPV); Return on Investment (ROI).

To carry out the effectiveness analysis there were used some data concerning the costs of medical care, costs of implementation of analysed medical technology as well as the benefits from its usage. To do that, some estimations of direct costs of medical care reported to the National Health Fund were made.

All the values of the indicators used in the cost-effectiveness analysis for all types of costs indicated no financial benefit in treating patients with laryngeal cancer in the studied periods. In addition, when performing profitability analyzes, cost analyzes are performed that allow for the estimation of other significant cost values for the tested process. With regard to the analysis of oncological diseases, especially laryngeal cancer, a reduced cost analysis was adopted, limiting itself only to the estimation of direct treatment costs.

Cost - effectiveness analysis has shown that the procedures connected with the cancer of larynx are unprofitable and underestimated by the National Health Fund. Improvement of effectiveness would by possible if there was an increase in procedures valuation. Due to the necessity of treatment complexity of such patients, it would be worth to introduce a model of integrated care.

Keywords: laryngeal cancer, pharmacoeconomics, medical procedures, clinical pharmacology.

© Farm Pol, 2022, 78(4): 175–183