Background: Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Iran. In this study, we aimed to assess the epidemiological status and calculate the hospitalization cost of bladder cancer patients in the southeastern part of Iran.
Methods: This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of 243 patients admitted to a referral center for the treatment of bladder cancer patients in the southeastern part of Iran during the years 2014-2015 and extracted their pathologic and hospitalization cost data. Using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Witney tests, we investigated the association between hospitalization cost and other variables including sex, age, cancer grade, cancer histology, type of treatment and time from diagnosis.
Results: About 53% of patients were in grade III or IV. More than half of them were non-muscle invasive (65%). The mean and median hospitalization costs per month were US$101 and US$72, respectively. The annual hospitalization cost for the first, second, and third year after diagnosis was estimated US$1608, US$840, and US$468 respectively. About 70% of patients were hospitalized only during the first year after diagnosis. In muscle-invasive bladder cancer, patients the average monthly hospitalization cost were about 2.1 times more than for non-muscle invasive patients (US$156 vs. US$76).
Conclusion: Bladder cancer is a costly disease and its cost significantly varies with disease stage at diagnosis. Developing effective strategies for early detection of bladder cancer as well as careful surveillance programs for early diagnosis of recurrence could reduce the cost of this cancer.
Keywords: Bladder cancer; Hospitalization cost; Iran.