Influence of surgical and treatment choices on the cost of breast cancer care

Abstract

We obtained medical claim files covering a period of 1 year prior to breast cancer diagnosis and the year following diagnosis for 204 women and estimated the cost of their treatment. We used log-linear regression controlling for age, comorbidity, physical functioning, and disease stage. To retransform the mean costs, we estimated separate smearing factors for surgical and adjuvant care types. The adjusted mean costs for breast cancer care ranged from $16,226 to $39,305 depending on the treatment provided with mastectomy being the least expensive option. Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) was more expensive because most women have multiple surgeries after the initial BCS and require adjuvant care. If the first surgery was a mastectomy, medical care use tends to return to precancer spending levels within a few months. Over one-half of the women in this study had multiple surgeries following diagnosis, leading to substantial costs and unknown morbidity.