A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Economic Burden of Breast Cancer Among Adult Females: Based on the Perspective of Social Development Level and Progression of Disease

Speaker(s)

Han L1, Wang J1, Han X2, Maitland E3, Nicholas S4, Xu Z5, Wang D5, Zeng K5
1Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China, 2Wuhan University, Wuhan, 42, China, 3University of Liverpool, Liverpool, ACT, Australia, 4University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 5Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

OBJECTIVES: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, surpassing the incidence of lung cancer globally and imposing a heavy economic burden on patients and health systems.We systematically reviewed and quantified the proportion of medical expenditures in the total economic costs of breast cancer by social development level and progression of disease; provided policy advice to health system policy-makers.

METHODS: We conducted a literature search on PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform from 2016 to 2023. The data indicators were extracted and evaluated independently for quality by two reviewers and disagreement was resolved by a third reviewer. Grouped by the social development level and progression of disease, the proportion of direct medical costs as a proportion of the total cost burden among breast cancer patients was calculated along with the 95% confidence interval.

RESULTS: A total of 15 studies on the economic burden of breast cancer identified, with one article eliminated due to significant risk bias, leaving 14 studies at a low risk level. The pooled proportion of direct medical cost burden of breast cancer in developed countries was 69.1% (95% CI, 52.5%-85.8%), in developing countries was 75.5% (95% CI, 61.2%-89.7%). The pooled medical costs proportion in total costs of metastatic breast cancer patients was 83.7% (95% CI, 62.7%-104.8%), and that of early breast cancer patients was only 49.6% (95% CI, 33.3%-66%).

CONCLUSIONS: The medical costs proportion in total costs of breast cancer patients was higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Patients with metastatic breast cancer accounted for the largest medical costs proportion of total medical costs. Medical costs, out-of-pocket costs, indirect costs and intangible burdens need to be better estimated. Additional resources should be allocated to support breast cancer prevention plus treatment intervention programs.

Code

EE164

Topic

Economic Evaluation, Real World Data & Information Systems, Study Approaches

Topic Subcategory

Health & Insurance Records Systems, Meta-Analysis & Indirect Comparisons, Work & Home Productivity - Indirect Costs

Disease

Oncology