Abstract

Our objective was to describe hospital care for childhood and adolescent cancers in France and to assess the related economic burden from the payer perspective. We conducted a retrospective study using the French national database of hospital stays (Programme Médicalisé des Systèmes d’Information) in the year 2007. This medical record database compiles all hospital stays for acute care. Medical and economic information is available for each stay. We identified 99,424 hospital stays concerning 10,383 children. Sixty-five percent of the patients were undergoing active treatment while the others were being followed-up for their cancer. Sixty-four percent of the patient population had a solid tumour and 36% had a haematological malignancy. The total hospital costs of childhood and adolescent cancers amounted to € 205 million (€ 192 million for the activity-based reimbursements and € 13 million for extra payments). For the patient population who were undergoing active treatment, the average cost per patient-year was € 46,175 for leukaemia, € 22,154 for lymphoma, € 28,548 for a bone tumour, € 23,412 for a central nervous tumour and € 15,799 for any other solid tumour.

Keywords:

Childhood cancer, child health services, cost analysis, disease cost.