14 DAY TRIAL // Dealing with cancer is never easy, as those who narrowly escaped the condition can attest. But, more important than getting rid of the disease, is to remain free of it, and prevent it from relapsing. In order for that to be possible, former patients need to stay on specific medication. A new investigation has, however, demonstrated that excessive drug costs prevent numerous people from seeking their respective treatments. This places them in danger of cancer relapse, experts say. The data for the new study were collected from the US National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
“Although the large number of survivors going without care was somewhat surprising, it has long been recognized that cancer can have a negative impact on the financial health of survivors. This is important because cancer survivors have many medical needs that persist for years after their diagnosis and treatment. The implications of this financial stress for their ongoing medical care are just beginning to be recognized,” explains Kathryn E. Weaver, PhD, MPH, the lead author of the new study. She is based at the Division of Public Health Science, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The work covered health data collected from 104,364 participants who had no history of cancer, and from 6,602 former cancer patients, all of them adults. The information spanned a period stretching between 2003 and 2006, and the full conclusions are detailed in the June 14 online issue of the publication Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS). The highest costs were associated with medical care (7.8 percent of “dropouts”), prescription drugs (9,9 percent), dental care (11.3 percent), and mental health care (2.7 percent). Overall, more than 2 million former cancer patients (18 percent of survivors in the United States) renounced treatment because of costs.
“Future research needs to examine the impact of forgoing care on survivors' quality of life and survival,” the authors of the new paper write. Weaver explains that additional attention will be given in future research to determining the impacts of the current healthcare reform on the way cancer patients deal with their post-disease recovery. Given that costs may fall over the next few years, we could expect to see more people resuming their treatments, some believe.