A joint research group consisting of Kyoto University, Kyoto City, AstraZeneca Co., Ltd., and Healthtech Research Institute Co., Ltd. is working on lung cancer, one of the diseases that causes many deaths and poses a major challenge in terms of medical expenses associated with treatment. We investigated changes in treatment content and medical expenses over time using big data held by Kyoto City.
The study included 2013 new-onset primary lung cancer patients who underwent lung cancer-related surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy between October 10 and March 2019. did.From a database that integrates information such as medical receipts, health checkup results, nursing care certification information, nursing care receipts, etc., and covers most of the elderly who are the age at which lung cancer is most likely to occur, we can analyze the patient's background, treatment details, survival period, and treatment options. Calculated medical expenses.
Analyzes showed that the percentage of patients who underwent surgery as primary treatment increased over time, from 35.2% to 39.6%. The percentage of patients who died within 2 years showed a decreasing trend (improvement) over time, from 2013% in 42.7 to 2016% in 36.8.
Regarding medical expenses, it was found that the total annual medical expenses for surgery, drug therapy, and radiotherapy for all lung cancer patients from 2014 to 2018 have all been increasing over the years.Above all, medical expenses for drug therapy have increased remarkably from 386,113 yen to 606,397 yen.Furthermore, it was found that the number of users of immune checkpoint inhibitors and their costs have increased since FY2015, and that they accounted for about 2018% of the total drug therapy costs in FY60.
While this study found changes in lung cancer treatment in the 2010s and improvements in survival rates over time, it also highlighted rising healthcare costs over time.This kind of analysis is expected to lead to objective evaluation and improvement of measures in local governments, such as showing the importance of curbing the increase in medical costs by strengthening preventive measures.
