OBJECTIVES: to estimate annual cost of trachea, bronchus and lung (TBL) cancer in Russia in 2016 year.

METHODS: It was a prevalence-based cost of illness study from state perspective. Direct medical costs included inpatient and outpatient diagnostics and treatment, outpatient pharmacotherapy reimbursed by state, palliative care and post-treatment follow-up. Non-medical direct costs included disability pension and temporary social disability payments. The indirect costs were calculated using the human-capital and friction-costs approach. Data was obtained from the national state and healthcare statistics surveillance system, cancer registry, expert survey and literature sources. All costs except outpatient pharmacotherapy were calculated by the bottom-up costing approach.

RESULTS: There were 185,631 patients with TBL cancer in Russia with 51,768 incident cases. 22,649 became disabled and 51,476 died. About 60% of incident patients had III or IV stage of cancer. First-year mortality rate for TBL cancer patients was 50.6%. Total economic burden of TBL cancer in 2016 in Russia was equivalent to US$ 0.22 billion (with indirect costs measured by friction cost method) or US$ 1.62 (human capital approach). Direct medical costs were US$ 101.85 million. Main direct medical cost drivers were inpatient treatment (US$ 61.07 million, US$ 2170.84 per patient), outpatient pharmacotherapy (US$ 22.17 million, US$ 119.45 per patient) and treatment in a day hospital department (US$ 14.91 million, US$ 530,00 per patient), which accounted for 60,0%, 21,8% and 14,6% of medical costs respectively. Direct non-medical costs were about US$ 85.94 million. Disability support pension payments were about US$ 77.07 million, while temporary social disability payments were about US$ 8.87 million. The indirect costs were estimated at US$ 0.032 billion or US$ 1.43 billion with friction-cost or human-capital method respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: TBL cancer imposes significant burden on economic system of Russian Federation.