Background: Breast cancer is the leading cancer in Thai women. Systemic chemotherapy is one of the main treatment options in both adjuvant and metastatic disease. Patterns of chemotherapy usage and hospital cost data are lacking.
Objective: To identify overall admission rate, chemotherapy admission and hospital cost data of breast cancer patients.
Material and method: Information on illness of inpatients and casualties came from hospitals nationwide and from hospital withdrawals from the three health insurance schemes in the fiscal 2010. The data included 96% of the population. The data were analyzed by age groups, regions, hospital levels and insurance schemes in breast cancer patients.
Results: Admissions from breast cancer occurred for 35,490 in the year 2010. Admissions for systemic chemotherapy accounted for 53.1% of all breast cancer admissions and accounted for 17.3% of all admissions for chemotherapy. Most of chemotherapy admissions were in tertiary care hospital level. Mean length of stay for chemotherapy in breast cancer was 2.33 days compared to 5.30 days in other cancers. Mean hospital charge for chemotherapy for breast cancer was 13,904 THB compared to 33,693 THB for other cancers. The mean hospital charge three insurance schemes groups: government welfare, social welfare and universal coverage were 33,096, 19,932 and 9,599 THB, respectively.
Conclusion: Admission rate for chemotherapy in breast cancer was not high. The cost of chemotherapy in each admission in breast cancer is nearly 50% lesser than chemotherapy for other cancers. Thus, generic drugs usage and outpatient administration of chemotherapy should be encouraged.