Medical expenditures for colorectal cancer diagnosis and treatment: A 10-year high-level-hospital-based multicenter retrospective survey in China, 2002-2011

Objective: Colorectal cancer(CRC) causes a substantial burden of disease in China and the evidence of economic burden triggered is fundamental for priority setting. The aim of this survey was to quantify medical expenditures and the time trends for CRC diagnosis and treatment in China.Methods: From 2012 to 2014, a hospital-based multicenter retrospective survey was conducted in 13 provinces across China. For each eligible CRC patient diagnosed from 2002 to 2011, clinical information and expenditure data were extracted using a uniform questionnaire. All expenditure data were reported in Chinese Yuan(CNY)using 2011 values.Results: Of the 14,536 CRC patients included, the average age at diagnosis was 58.2 years and 15.8% were stageI cases. The average medical expenditure per patient was estimated at 37,902 CNY [95 % confidence interval(95%CI): 37,282-38,522], and the annual average increase rate was 9.2% from 2002 to 2011(P for trend <0.001), with a cumulative increase of 2.4 times(from 23,275 CNY to 56,010 CNY). The expenditure per patient in stages Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ and Ⅳ were 31,698 CNY, 37,067 CNY, 38,918 CNY and 42,614 CNY, respectively(P<0.001). Expenditure significantly differed within various subgroups. Expenses for drugs contributed the largest proportion(52.6%).Conclusions: These conservative estimates illustrated that medical expenditures for CRC diagnosis and treatment in tertiary hospitals in China were substantial and increased rapidly over the 10 years, with drugs continually being the main expense by 2011. Relatively, medical expenditures are lower for CRC in the earlier stages. These findings will facilitate the economic evaluation of CRC prevention and control in China.

Expenditure and financial burden for the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer in China:a hospital.based,multicenter,cross-sectional survey

Background: The increasing prevalence of colorectal cancer(CRC) in China and the paucity of information about relevant expenditure highlight the necessity of better understanding the financial burden and effect of CRC diagnosis and treatment. We performed a survey to quantify the direct medical and non-medical expenditure as well as the resulting financial burden of CRC patients in China.Methods: We conducted a multicenter, cross-sectional survey in 37 tertiary hospitals in 13 provinces across China between 2012 and 2014. Each enrolled patient was interviewed using a structured questionnaire. All expenditure data were inflated to the 2014 Chinese Yuan(CNY; 1 CNY = 0.163 USD). We quantified the overall expenditure and financial burden and by subgroup(hospital type, age at diagnosis, sex, education, occupation, insurance type, household income, clinical stage, pathologic type, and therapeutic regimen). We then performed generalized linear modeling to determine the factors associated with overall expenditure.Results: A total of 2356 patients with a mean age of 57.4 years were included, 57.1 % of whom were men; 13.9% of patients had stage I cancer; and the average previous-year household income was 54,525 CNY.The overall average direct expenditure per patient was estimated to be 67,408 CNY, and the expenditures for stage Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ disease were 56,099 CNY, 59,952 CNY, 67,292 CNY, and 82,729 CNY, respectively. Non-medical expenditure accounted for 8.3%of the overall expenditure. The 1-year out-of-pocket expenditure of a newly diagnosed patient was 32,649 CNY, which accounted for 59.9% of their previous-year household income and caused 75.0% of families to suffer an unmanageable financial burden. Univariate analysis showed that financial burden and overall expenditure differed in almost all subgroups(P < 0.05), except for sex. Multivariate analysis showed that patients who were treated in specialized hospitals and those who were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma or diagnosed at a later stage were likely to spend more,whereas those with a lower household income and those who underwent surgery spent less(all P < 0.05).Conclusions: For patients in China, direct expenditure for the diagnosis and treatment of CRC seemed catastrophic,and non-medical expenditure was non-ignorable. The financial burden varied among subgroups, especially among patients with different clinical stages of disease, which suggests that, in China, CRC screening might be cost-effective.

Medical expenditure for esophageal cancer in China:a 10-year multicenter retrospective survey(2002-2011)

Background: Esophageal cancer is associated with substantial disease burden in China, and data on the economic burden are fundamental for setting priorities in cancer interventions. The medical expenditure for the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer in China has not been fully quantified. This study aimed to examine the medical expenditure of Chinese patients with esophageal cancer and the associated trends.Methods: From 2012 to 2014, a hospital-based multicenter retrospective survey was conducted in 37 hospitals in 13 provinces/municipalities across China as a part of the Cancer Screening Program of Urban China. For each esophageal cancer patient diagnosed between 2002 and 2011, clinical information and expense data were extracted by using structured questionnaires. All expense data were reported in Chinese Yuan(CNY; 1 CNY = 0.155 USD) based on the2011 value and inflated using the year-specific health care consumer price index for China.Results: A total of 14,967 esophageal cancer patients were included in the analysis. It was estimated that the overall average expenditure per patient was 38,666 CNY, and an average annual increase of 6.27% was observed from 2002(25,111 CNY) to 2011(46,124 CNY). The average expenditures were 34,460 CNY for stage Ⅰ,39,302 CNY for stage Ⅱ,40,353 CNY for stage Ⅲ, and 37,432 CNY for stage IV diseases(P < 0.01). The expenditure also differed by the therapy type, which was 38,492 CNY for surgery, 27,933 CNY for radiotherapy, and 27,805 CNY for chemotherapy(P < 0.05).Drugs contributed to 45.02% of the overall expenditure.Conclusions: These conservative estimates suggested that medical expenditures for esophageal cancer in China substantially increased in the last 10 years, treatment for early-stage esophageal cancer costs less than that for advanced cases, and spending on drugs continued to account for a considerable proportion of the overall expenditure.

Plasma microRNAs as potential new biomarkers for early detection of early gastric cancer

BACKGROUND Early gastric cancer(EGC), compared with advanced gastric cancer(AGC), has a higher 5-year survival rate. However, due to the lack of typical symptoms and the difficulty in diagnosing EGC, no effective biomarkers exist for the detection of EGC, and gastroscopy is the only detection method.AIM To provide new biomarkers with high specificity and sensitivity through analyzed the differentially expressed microRNAs(miRNAs) in EGC and AGC and compared them with those in benign gastritis(BG).METHODSWe examined the differentially expressed miRNAs in the plasma of 30 patients with EGC, AGC, and BG by miRNA chip analysis. Then, we analyzed and selected the significantly different miRNAs using bioinformatics. Reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)confirmed the relative transcription level of these miRNAs in another 122 patients, including patients with EGC, AGC, Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori)-negative gastritis(Control-1), and H. pylori-positive atrophic gastritis(Control-2).To establish a diagnostic model for the detection of plasma miRNA in EGC, we chose miRNAs that can be used to determine EGC and AGC from Control-1 and Control-2 and miRNAs in EGC from all other groups.RESULTS Among the expression profiles of the miRNA chips in the three groups in the discovery set, of 117 aberrantly expressed miRNAs, 30 confirmed target prediction, whereas 14 were included as potential miRNAs. The RT-qPCR results showed that 14 potential miRNAs expression profiles in the two groups exhibited no differences in terms of H. pylori-negative gastritis(Control-1) and H. pyloripositive atrophic gastritis(Control-2). Hence, these two groups were incorporated into the Control group. A combination of four types of miRNAs,miR-7641, miR-425-5 p, miR-1180-3 p and miR-122-5 p, were used to effectively distinguish the Cancer group(EGC + AGC) from the Control group [area under the curve(AUC) = 0.799, 95% confidence interval(CI): 0.691-0.908, P < 0.001].Additionally, miR-425-5 p, miR-24-3 p, miR-1180-3 p and miR-122-5 p were utilized to distinguish EGC from the Control group(AUC = 0.829, 95%CI: 0.657-1.000, P =0.001). Moreover, the miR-24-3 p expression level in EGC was lower than that in the AGC(AUC = 0.782, 95%CI: 0.571-0.993, P = 0.029), and the miR-4632-5 p expression level in EGC was significantly higher than that in AGC(AUC = 0.791,95%CI: 0.574-1.000, P = 0.024).CONCLUSION The differentially expressed circulatory plasma miR-425-5 p, miR-1180-3 p, miR-122-5 p, miR-24-3 p and miR-4632-5 p can be regarded as a new potential biomarker panel for the diagnosis of EGC. The prediction and early diagnosis of EGC can be considerably facilitated by combining gastroscopy with the use of these miRNA biomarkers, thereby optimizing the strategy for effective detection of EGC. Nevertheless, larger-scale human experiments are still required to confirm our findings.