new YORK (Reuters Health) – according to a new study,
colon cancer patients under 50 years of age and those of
low income or unemployed were more likely to experience
severe financial as a result of treatment problems
to save their lives.
The residents of the State of Washington to study
were under treatment for colon cancer found that compared
with seniors, 50 children had more than 50 times
more possibility you need to sell or refinance their homes,
lose 20 percent or more of the wage, borrow or request a
loan to friends and family.
Patients with incomes below $ 30,000
annual were eight times more likely to have these problems
economic than those with higher incomes.
“Most oncologists know these stories of
“”
patients that spend lots of money on their treatment”, said the
Dr. Veena Shankaran, author of the study and oncologist
of University of Washington. “They are stories that always
we hear in clinics and wanted to know its extent”,
added.
The authors found that the majority of patients
they do not talk with doctors about the cost of treatments
and some saltearon up or rejected therapies for the price.
Shankaran team performed a survey of 555
residents in several areas of the State of Washington with cancer
advanced colon diagnosed between 2008 and 2010. Of the
284 responded, 104 had at least one problem
economic associated with treatment.
“We were surprised to find almost 40 percent of the
“”
patients with these changes”, said author.
The hypothesis of the authors was that these groups had less
savings and other resources that support when they began
to accumulate the copayments and refused refunds.
Another 27 percent of the participants mentioned effects
economic not so serious, including the sale of shares, the use
savings or retirement account, or a reduction of the
less than 20 percent income.
The team also identified that a 5 per cent had
sautéed treatment because of its cost and that 7 percent as
had rejected for the same reason.
In an editorial published in Journal of Clinical Oncology,
researcher Cathy Bradley, of the Faculty of Medicine of
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, wrote that the
health system can avoid these economic collapses to
cause cancer treatments.
Points out that a long-term strategy would be to invest
in prevention. For example: Medicare should be able to negotiate the
cancer drugs costs or cover the alternative more
economic if it is demonstrated that the result is the same.
In addition, said doctors should talk with their
patients on the costs and how much it should pay.
“Must understand how much will cost them to them and their
“
families. “Need to make informed decisions”, said Bradley
to Reuters Health.
In its editorial, Bradley explains that eight weeks of
chemotherapy can exceed $30,000. The team of
Shankaran found that only 42 per cent of patients
remembered having conversed with their doctors about the costs.
For Bradley “is a problem of policies and patients
“
trapped in the middle (…) “There is not much that they can
do to resolve it”.
Shankaran commented that most oncologists have with
a financial adviser available to patients and
there are also online resources.
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology, online March 12,
2012.
