Published Aug 22, 2015

Budapest, Hungary - Malignant diseases represent a high burden for societies in Central and Eastern European countries. The data routinely collected in the database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund can be used to assess some quality indicators related to the care of cancer patients.    In the study, “Prognosis, Cost and Occurrence of Colorectal, Lung, Breast, and Prostate Cancer in Hungary,” researchers estimate that some quality measures and resource use indicators of malignant diseases (lung cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer) from the payers’ database in Hungary. The study can be found in Value in Health Regional Issues Volume 7 (September/October 2015). The poorest survival rate was associated with lung cancer (5-year estimated overall survival: 17.1%), followed by colorectal cancer (41.3%), prostate cancer (62.1%) and breast cancer (75.2%). The time from first diagnosis to treatment initiation was reasonably fair in all conditions except for the lung cancer. The annual cost of treatment was the highest in lung cancer (4157 EUR), followed by colorectal cancer (3165 EUR), prostate cancer (2834 EUR) and breast cancer (2585 EUR). András Inotai, PharmD, PhD, Researcher, Syreon Research Institute and President, ISPOR Hungary Chapter, says “The data that is routinely collected in the database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund can improve investment decisions in public health care and increase transparency in health care decision making.”