Abstract 15.10 ESTIMATION OF HEALTH CARE SYSTEM COSTS IN TREATING NON MELANOMA SKIN CANCER

INTRODUCTION: Non melanoma skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, with an increased incidence over the past years. Presently, every year are diagnosed globally between 2 and 3 million of non melanoma skin cancers, 80% of these are usually basal cell carcinomas and 20% squamous cell carcinoma. Because of the increasing incidence, non melanoma skin cancer became a problem for health care services due to patient lower productivity and treatment costs. Even though mortality is rare, within 1%, a lot of patients require extensive surgery, being exposed to additional anesthesia risks. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The present study is a retrospective study, realized over a 2 year period of time, including 150 patients treated in the Plastic Surgery Department of Emergency Clinical Hospital “Prof. Dr. Agrippa Ionescu”. Descriptive data analysis was realized and the costs of each surgery were evaluated considering the necessity of general or local anesthesia, hospitalization days and additional imaging tests. RESULTS: Non melanoma skin cancers treated were basal cell carcinoma in 83,3% of cases and squamous cell carcinoma in 16,7 % of cases. Costs were higher in patients with bigger lesions, due to the necessity of general anesthesia required for extensive surgery and longer hospitalization days (p<0,05). The mean value of hospitalization days was 3.5, being correlated with the difficulty of surgical intervention (p=0,003). The average cost of a surgery with local anesthesia in a patient with no additional comorbidities is 200 euro in comparison with 650 euro for general anesthesia and additional comorbidities. Higher costs were also associated with rural provenience and squamous cell carcinoma due to the necessity of performing additional imaging tests, but were no correlated with older age. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the costs, non melanoma skin cancer became one of the main concerns for public health care system in developed countries. Romania doesn’t have an evaluation of real costs for every patient and the importance of prevention or early detection. People from rural areas have a lower medical education and consult their general practitioner in advanced cases, which leads to the necessity of extensive surgery and reconstruction with higher costs and consequences for their appearance and self-esteem.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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