[Cost of leukemia treatment]

Medical cost has increasingly become an important problem in the medical practice. As one of the useful fields of computer in the hospital, we have analyzed the costs of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation in patients with leukemia who were diagnosed between 1983 and 1986 and followed up till Dec. 1989. For CML the difference in the cost was 5 million yen and a survival rate was 75% and was higher in BMT than in chemotherapy. For Acute leukemia the difference of the costs was 8 million yen and survival rates were 89% and 30%. These data may show that BMT is a very effective and economical treatment for leukemia. In this study we have analyzed only the direct medical cost paid by the governmental insurance, however there seems necessary many other costs which are not covered by the insurance such as the cost for the family members, the cost for cryopreservation of cells and sterilization tentatively covered by the hospital or the cost of blood or marrow bank which are covered or should be covered by the government. Evaluation of the treatment outcome by the parameters such as length and quality of life, productivity of the patient, prevention of the loss of social investment including education on the patient, seemed also necessary for justification of the medical cost.