1. Key messages
- Lung cancer is the most costly cancer, followed by colon and rectum cancer, and breast cancer.
- Lung cancer is common and costly to treat.
- Many of the high cost cancers can be prevented by tackling risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and environmental stressors.
2. Cost of cancer
Lung cancer is the most costly cancer
From the cancers included in the analysis for 2018, trachea, bronchus, and lung cancer had by far the highest total medical costs, followed by colon and rectum cancer, and breast cancer.
Source: The incremental healthcare cost associated with cancer in Belgium: A registry-based data analysis [1]
Lung cancer is common and costly to treat
The high total medical costs, represented by the bubble size, for trachea, bronchus and lung cancer seem to be driven by a combination of high average attributable medical costs and a medium to high number of cases. For colon and rectum cancer and breast cancer, the high total medical costs seem to be connected to the cancers being relatively common.
It should be noted that costs vary depending on factors like how long someone has had the cancer and whether they have cancer in more than one part of their body. Cancers like bronchus and lung cancer, liver cancer, pancreas cancer, and mesothelioma tend to have high costs. This could be because these cancers often have poor survival rates and shorter durations, leading to higher initial treatment costs and higher end-of-life costs. In the analysis, costs tend to decrease the longer someone has had cancer, and they tend to increase if someone has cancer in more than one part of their body [1].
Source: The incremental healthcare cost associated with cancer in Belgium: A registry-based data analysis [1]
3. Read more
The results of the cost of cancer study were published in a scientific article
Background
Data source
The data source for the cost of cancer analysis is the Belgian Cancer Registry linked with health insurance data from the Intermutualistic Agency. The Belgian Cancer Registry collects information on cancer diagnoses in Belgium. The Intermutualistic Agency (IMA) gathers information on direct healthcare costs, compiling the healthcare expenses from all public health insurances in Belgium.
How we calculate medical costs of cancer
The medical costs of cancer are calculated by comparing the total medical expenditure for people who have cancer, compared to people who do not have cancer. We looked at cancer cases from the past 10 years and focused on the costs for the year 2018. The people with cancer were matched with people who do not have cancer based on age, sex, region of residence, and preferential reimbursement status. The matching cancels out the effects that these factors have on health expenditure and helps us get a clearer picture of how much a particular cancer is impacting the costs.
Definitions
- Medical costs
- In this analysis, medical costs are defined as direct healthcare costs. Direct healthcare costs encompass all the expenses associated with hospitalizations, outpatient visits, and medication use. Long-term care and psychiatric care are generally not part of the analysis, unless expenses are reimbursed by the compulsory health insurance. These costs can be covered directly by compulsory health insurance, reimbursed to patients after they have paid, or paid out-of-pocket.
References
- V. Gorasso et al., “The incremental healthcare cost associated with cancer in Belgium: A registry-based data analysis,” Cancer Med, Jan. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.6659
Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Cost of illness: cancer, Health Status Report, 11 Apr 2024, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/cost-of-illness/cancer