Current and predicted cost of metastatic renal cell carcinoma in Finland

Information on detailed treatment costs and the economic burden of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is rare. The current study provides treatment costs and outcomes of patients with metastatic RCC (mRCC), as well as estimates of the future burden from the perspective of Finnish health care. These results offer a baseline against which the impact of emerging treatments may be evaluated.

Information on treatment modalities, survival, and the cost of treatment was retrospectively gathered from mRCC patients (n = 83) receiving first-line interferon-alpha (IFN). Predictions of the number of new cases, premature deaths, and productivity losses were made using local epidemiological data, which were projected to the future using population growth forecasts. The future costs of mRCC treatment and the budget impact of sunitinib were estimated through modeling.

Patients survived 11.9 months (median; 95% CI 9.2-14.7) after initiation of active IFN treatment, accruing an average total treatment cost of 951 euros. Most of the treatment costs were due to hospitalization and active IFN treatment. The aging of the population leads to nearly a 2% increase in the absolute number of new diagnoses annually, while at the same time it results in declining productivity losses. The estimated five-year population cost of IFN-based treatment was 16M euros-26M euros. Adding sunitinib to the first-line treatment protocol increased this cost by 13M eruos-41M euros.

Despite the limited number of patients, metastatic renal cell carcinoma places a considerable economic burden on Finnish society. Treatment costs are likely to increase substantially due to the adoption of new and more expensive medications, the aging population, and enhanced survival times.