Medical Cost to Treat Cervical Cancer Patients at a Social Security Third Level Oncology Hospital in Mexico City

Background: Cervical Cancer (CC) is an important public health problem worldwide. In 2015, CC was the sixth leading cause of death for women aged 30-59 years in Mexico. Despite the importance of having high-quality and accurate estimates of CC treatment costs that can be used to effectively evaluate the impact of preventive programs, there is scarce information on this topic in Mexico. Objective: To estimate the treatment costs by stage diagnosis in patients with CC at a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) oncology hospital in Mexico City. Methods: An observational retrospective study of the resources used to treat 346 women with CC was conducted. Medical charts were reviewed and relevant resource use information was extracted using a data collection instrument that was created based on treatment guidelines. Data were classified into nine cost categories to estimate the total cost per patient. Results: The mean age of patients in the study sample was 54.3 years (range: 41-67), and the average body mass index (BMI) was >26 kg/m2. Among the participants, 37% were smokers, 39% had diabetes, and 56% had hypertension. The medical cost for stages I-IV ranged from $4,738 to $6,058 USD, with an estimated average cost of $5,114 USD. Conclusion: Total treatment costs per patient are high, especially since they were estimated considering only 7.5 months of treatment. This is the first study to estimate the annual cost to treat CC in Mexico and to additionally document the resource pattern use, cost by stage of cancer, and the distribution by cost categories.