OBJECTIVES

: In metastatic cancer, best supportive care(BSC) is used including relief from various symptoms, control of pain when there is no available medication after disease progression.

The treatment depends on cancer site and patients so it is difficult to calculate the cost which is needed for pharmacoeconomic study. Therefore based on health insurance calims, this study aims to calculate the BSC cost for 13 most prevalent cancers in Korea.

METHODS

: We identified the patients who had been treated for the primary diagnoses of one of the 13 most prevalent cancers in Korea and died from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service(HIRA) database between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2015. We defined the BSC period from the last day of anticancer drugs to death in terminal cancer patients and calculate the medical care costs spent during that period.

RESULTS

: The BSC period after stopping the chemotherapy was the longest (71 days) for thyroid cancer, and the shortest for pancreatic cancer (49 days). The average length of hospital stay was the shortest for AML (10 days) and 19 days in stomach cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and colorectal cancer. The average medical care cost per patient was 3,070USD for AML and more than 2,700 USD for uterine cancer, ovarian cancer. In prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, kidney cancer the medical care cost was about 1,360 USD.

CONCLUSIONS

: In Korea, many patients are still stayed in the hospital until the end of life and spend a lot of money. Policy interventions are needed such as hospice and home care services for patients in the end of life period.