Medical Cost to Treat Cervical Cancer Patients at a Social Security Third Level Oncology Hospital in Mexico City

Granados-García, Víctor; Piña-Sánchez, Patricia; Reynoso-Noveron, Nancy; Flores, Yvonne N; Toledano-Toledano, Filiberto; Estrada-Gómez, Gloria; Apresa-García, Teresa; Briseño, Arely A

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.5.1547

Medical Cost to Treat Cervical Cancer Patients at a Social Security Third Level Oncology Hospital in Mexico City

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

¹ Epidemiological and Health Services Research Unit. Aging Area, 21st Century National Medical Center. Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). Mexico City, Mexico.

² Unit of Medical Research in Oncological Diseases, UMAE, Oncology Hospital, 21st Century National Medical Center, IMSS. Mexico City, Mexico.

³ Research Directorate, National Institute of Cancerology. Mexico City, Mexico.

⁴ Epidemiological and Health Services Research Unit, Morelos Delegation, IMSS. Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico.

⁵ UCLA Department of Health Policy and Management, Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Fielding School of Public, Health and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

⁶ Evidence-Based Medicine Research Unit. Children’s Hospital of Mexico Federico Gómez, National Institute of Health. Mexico City, Mexico.

10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.5.1547

Abstract

Background: Cervical Cancer (CC) is an important public health problem worldwide. In 2015, CC was the sixth
leading cause of death for women aged 30-59 years in Mexico. Despite the importance of having high-quality and
accurate estimates of CC treatment costs that can be used to effectively evaluate the impact of preventive programs, there
is scarce information on this topic in Mexico. Objective: To estimate the treatment costs by stage diagnosis in patients
with CC at a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) oncology hospital in Mexico City. Methods: An observational
retrospective study of the resources used to treat 346 women with CC was conducted. Medical charts were reviewed and
relevant resource use information was extracted using a data collection instrument that was created based on treatment
guidelines. Data were classified into nine cost categories to estimate the total cost per patient. Results: The mean age
of patients in the study sample was 54.3 years (range: 41-67), and the average body mass index (BMI) was >26 kg/m2.
Among the participants, 37% were smokers, 39% had diabetes, and 56% had hypertension. The medical cost for stages
I-IV ranged from $4,738 to $6,058 USD, with an estimated average cost of $5,114 USD. Conclusion: Total treatment
costs per patient are high, especially since they were estimated considering only 7.5 months of treatment. This is the
first study to estimate the annual cost to treat CC in Mexico and to additionally document the resource pattern use, cost
by stage of cancer, and the distribution by cost categories.

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