Financial toxicity of cancer treatment and its impact on quality of life in tertiary care public sector hospital

Objective: to study the financial burden of treatment and its consequences in patients suffering from cancer. material and methods: an observational,cross sectional survey was performed,based on convenience sampling,to assess patient reported financial toxicity (ft) related to cancer treatment. ft related items were measured using 5-point likert scale on 11-item questionnaire. total score ranged from 0-44. lower score indicated higher ft. arbitrary cut-off points were selected to differentiate between stress levels due to ft: 0-10 catastrophic stress; 11-20 moderate stress; 21-30 mild stress; 31 and above no stress. results: this study was conducted on 102 patients,75% were males and mean age of all patients was 40.5 years. mean monthly income was rs.15718. nineteen (18.6%) patients were unemployed; 19 (18.6 %) were housewives while 09 (9%) were manual laborers. all patients (100 %) were not having enough savings to cover full treatment expenses. seventy one percent patients were worried about financial problems while 84 % patients could not meet their monthly expenses due to treatment costs. eighty five percent patients were worried about losing job. only 10% reported to be in full control of their financial situation. overall,catastrophic stress was reported by 53 (52 %); moderate stress by 35 (34%); mild stress by 10 (10 %) while no stress was reported by only 4% patients. conclusions: majority of patients undergoing cancer treatment at this public sector teaching hospital were poor and under severe stress that badly affected their quality of life. © 2017,khyber medical college. all rights reserved.