The Direct Medical Costs of Colorectal Cancer in Iran; Analyzing the Patient’s Level Data from a Cancer Specific Hospital in Isfahan

Background: the immense cost of cancer treatment is one of themain challenges of health care systems all over the world includingiran. the aim of this study was to analyze the direct treatmentcosts of colorectal cancer patients in isfahan, iran.methods: in this cross sectional study, the medical records ofcolorectal cancer (crc) patients admitted to the seyyed?al?shohadahospital “ssh” from 2005-2010 were reviewed. the profilesof 452 patients were examined. however based on inclusion,exclusion criteria a total number of 432 profiles were analyzed.all records including age, sex, treatment processes and treatmentcosts were extracted from the patients’ profiles and analyzed usingkruskal?wallis test.findings: the results showed that 56.1% of crc patients weremale. the mean age of patients suffering from crc was 56 ± 13.4.more than thirty?six percent of the patients were in stages 1?3 ofcrc and more than half of them (64.4%) were in the 4th stage.the higher the stage of the cancer the higher the percentage oftreatments used. 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (5fu/lv) wasthe most common used chemical treatment protocol. the meantreatment cost for stage one was 10715 (±4927), for stage two15920 (±3440), stage three 16452 (±2828) and for stage four was16723 (±2555) us dollars. the cost of drug treatment was thefirst cost driven between the medical services.conclusion: crc in iranian population starts in younger age thanpeople in western countries. this imposed considerable direct andindirect economic cost to the society. the direct medical cost ofcolorectal cancer in iran is very higher than 38 million $. screeningprograms could reduce the economic cost of crc significantly.