OBJECTIVES: Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. In Finland, 2,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer yearly. The majority, 80-85%, of all lung cancers are non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), which are commonly diagnosed at an advanced stage. In this study, we characterized secondary healthcare resource utilization and associated costs of Finnish NSCLC patients in a real-life clinical setting. The treatment lines and outcomes will also be characterized in subsequent complete analyses of Finnish NSCLC population.

METHODS: All adult patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC at the Hospital District of Southwest Finland between the years of 2013-2014, were included in the study. Data on resource use and costs was collected retrospectively from electronic healthcare records via the Turku Clinical Research Centre (TurkuCRC) database. Data was collected one year prior to diagnosis and one year after the diagnosis.

RESULTS: A total of 464 NSCLC patients were included in the study. The mean number of annual outpatient visits per patient was 6.7 one year prior to diagnosis and 12.5 one year after the diagnosis. The mean number of inpatient visits during the pre-diagnosis year was 0.8 and 1.4 during the post-diagnosis year. The mean number of inpatient days per year was 3.8 and 10.0, respectively. One year prior to diagnosis the mean annual total costs of secondary care resource use were 5377€ and one year after the diagnosis 11423€.

CONCLUSIONS: There was a clear increase in healthcare resource utilization and costs after the NSCLC diagnosis. NSCLC patients had a higher number of outpatient visits and inpatient stays during the post-diagnosis year, compared to the year before NSCLC diagnosis, which resulted over 2-fold increase in annual healthcare cost.