The National Cancer Institute estimates that $154 billion will be spent on care for people with cancer in 2019, distributed across the year after diagnosis (31%), the final year of life (31%), and continuing care between those two (38%). Projections of future costs estimate persistent growth in care expenditures. Early research studies on the economics of palliative care have reported a general pattern of cost savings during inpatient hospital admissions and the end-of-life phase. Recent research has demonstrated more complex dynamics, but expanding palliative care capacity to meet clinical guidelines and population health needs seems to save costs. Quantifying these cost savings requires additional research, because there is significant variance in estimates of the effects of treatment on costs, depending on the timing of intervention, the primary diagnosis, and the overall illness burden. Because ASCO guidelines state that palliative care should be provided concurrently with other treatment from the point of diagnosis onward for all metastatic cancer, new and ambitious research is required to evaluate the cost effects of palliative care across the entire disease trajectory. We propose a series of ways to reach the guideline goals.

中文翻译：

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癌症姑息治疗的经济学：解释当前证据，规划未来研究重点


美国国家癌症研究所估计，2019 年将花费 1,540 亿美元用于癌症患者的护理，分布在诊断后一年 (31%)、生命的最后一年 (31%) 以及两者之间的持续护理 (38%) ）。对未来成本的预测估计护理支出持续增长。关于姑息治疗经济学的早期研究报告了住院期间和临终阶段的成本节省的一般模式。最近的研究表明了更复杂的动态，但扩大姑息治疗能力以满足临床指南和人口健康需求似乎可以节省成本。量化这些成本节省需要进行额外的研究，因为治疗对成本影响的估计存在显着差异，具体取决于干预时间、初步诊断和总体疾病负担。由于 ASCO 指南规定，对于所有转移性癌症，从诊断开始，姑息治疗应与其他治疗同时提供，因此需要开展新的、雄心勃勃的研究来评估姑息治疗在整个疾病轨迹中的成本影响。我们提出了一系列实现指导目标的方法。