Direct Costs of Cervical Cancer Management in Morocco

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> For cervical cancer the epidemiological profile is poorly known in Morocco and no data isavailable concerning the direct medical costs. The purpose of this work is to estimate the direct cost of medicalmanagement of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco. <br/><b>Methods</b>: The estimationof direct costs of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Moroccois based on the estimation of individual cost in each stage which covers diagnosis, treatment and follow-up duringfirst year. The cost was estimated per patient and whole cycle-set using the costs for each drug and procedureas indicated by the Moroccan National Agency for Health Insurance. Extrapolation of the results to the wholecountry was used to calculate the total annual cost of cervical cancer treatments in Morocco. <br/><b>Results</b>: Overallapproximately 1,978 new cases of cervical cancer occur each year in Morocco. The majority (82.96%) of thesecases were diagnosed at a late stage (stageII or more). The cost of one case of cervical cancer depends on stageof diagnosis, the lowest cost is $382 for stageCis followed by the cost of stageIA1 for young women (< 40 years)which is $2,952. The highest cost is for stageIV, which is $7,827. The total cost of cervical cancer care for oneyear after diagnosis is estimated at $13,589,360. The share allocated to treatment is the most important part ofthe global care budget with an annual sum of $13,027,609 whereas other cost components are represented asfollows: $435,694 for annual follow-up activity and $126,057 for diagnosis and preclinical staging. <br/><b>Conclusion</b>:This study provides health decision-makers with a first estimate of costs and the opportunity to achieve theoptimal use of available data to estimate the needs of health facilities in Morocco.