A cost of illness analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma for the Greek healthcare setting

Kostas Athanasakis; Fani Pliarchopoulou; Vasiliki Naoum; Christos Psarrakis; Nikolaos Tziolos; Theodoros Marantos; Christina Damoulari; Athina Chounta

A cost of illness analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma for the Greek healthcare setting

Gastroenterol Hepatol Bed Bench. 2020 Summer;13(3):219-222.

Authors

Kostas Athanasakis¹, Fani Pliarchopoulou², Vasiliki Naoum³, Christos Psarrakis², Nikolaos Tziolos², Theodoros Marantos², Christina Damoulari², Athina Chounta²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
² 4th Department of Internal Medicine, University General Hospital "ATTIKON", National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Haidari, Athens, Greece.
³ Institute for Health Economics, Athens, Greece.

PMID: 32821351
PMCID: PMC7417487

Abstract

Aim: To estimate the cost per patient for hepatocellular carcinoma in Greece, a setting that is currently facing financial constraints.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma patient management strategies are associated with significant costs. Despite this, patient level data on healthcare resource use and cost-of-illness analyses of hepatocellular carcinoma remain rather scarce in the international literature.

Methods: 123 patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma and followed in a specialised clinic of a tertiary hospital in Greece formed the basis of the analysis. Detailed resource use data were derived from the medical records of each patient. Data were recorded from the first encounter of the patient with the facility until a fatal endpoint or until the last day of follow up. Patients that were lost to follow-up were excluded from the analysis. Calculations follow a third-party payer perspective, according to official prices and tariffs.

Results: The average cost per patient was estimated at 12,119.1 Euros (SD: 14,670.3) (21,375.1 PPP USD) for the average follow-up period and 10,241.5 Euros (18,063.5 PPP USD) per year. Median costs per month of follow-up according to underlying disease were 1,218.1, 1,376.8, 1,521.3 and 686.9 Euros (2,148.4, 2,428.3, 2,683.2 and 1,211.5 PPP USD) for patients with alcoholic steatohepatitis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, respectively.

Conclusion: Hepatocellular carcinoma represents a heavy toll, both from the clinical as well as from the economic perspective, especially for a setting in "dire straits". Interventions towards reducing the incidence and, subsequently, the cost of HCC are imperative.

Keywords: Cost-of-illness; Economic evaluation; Hepatocellular cancer.