The Cost of Lung Cancer Treatment

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It might be nice if there was a single price tag attached to any specific cancer treatment, but in the United States, that's not remotely how cancer treatment works, or how the health care system works.

Lung Cancer Treatment

Depending on the stage at diagnosis, the decisions of the doctors and the patient, and other factors, lung cancer treatment typically involves some surgical intervention as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Costs and treatment types will differ when the histologic subtype of lung cancer and the location of the disease in the body are determined, but for the purposes of this entry, those aspects are not given consideration.

A lung cancer patient faces costs from:

- Physician office visits
- Care in a nursing facility
- Family counseling
- Hospital stays
- Other physician services
- Medical equipment

Procedures and tests or scans such as:

- Chest X-ray (likely more than one)
- Computed tomography (CT) of the chest (likely more than one)
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the chest (likely more than one)
- Sputum cytological analysis
- Percutaneous aspiration of pulmonary nodules
- Bronchoscopy
- Mediastinoscopy
- Thorascopy
- Thoracotomy
- Wedge resection
- Pneumonectomy
- Lobectomy

Because lung cancer is often a terminal illness, patients also face costs in receiving terminal treatment, hospice care, or palliative care.

The Cost of Lung Cancer Treatment

Again, it is impossible to put a reliable figure on what the cost of lung cancer treatment is because not only is every patient different, but because billing methods and inconsistencies between one treatment facility and the next, along with Medicare issues and negotiated rates between hospitals and insurance companies, all make it impossible to be certain. However, a couple of studies have tried to put an average figure on the cost of lung cancer treatment.

To do so, costs are broken down by phases.

Staging phase

If patients do not receive any specific treatment in the month they are diagnosed, just reaching the diagnosis and staging the disease can cost as much as $13,000.

If radiotherapy or chemotherapy is included during this phase, costs can go up to as high as $17,000.

Initial phase

The initial phase begins after staging and diagnosis. If a patient received supportive care only, it would still cost on average about $3,000 per month.

If the patient is receiving chemotherapy or radiation during this time, monthly costs can reach over $8,000.

Month of Surgery

During the month in which a lung cancer patient undergoes surgery, costs incurred typically reach at least $26,000.

Conclusion

At this point, the question becomes how long the patient survives. Advanced stage lung cancer has a very poor prognosis, but patients typically live beyond one year or more. So to determine an average cost, one would take the staging phase, add it to the month of surgery costs (if there is surgery), and then multiply the months by the associated levels of treatment. Assuming a year of life, and assuming surgery, three months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and nine months of supportive care, the total comes to about $90,000.

Sources:
Cipriano LE et al. Lung cancer treatment costs, including patient responsibility, by stage of disease and treatment modality, 1992–2003. Value Health. 2011 January; 14(1): 41–52.

US Environmental Protection Agency (pdf)

 

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