Grant: Operating Grant

Costing studies can be used to describe the burden of disease and enhance the scientific credibility of economic evaluations. There is currently an ongoing Canadian study looking at cancer costs for adults, yet little is known about cancer costs in childhood. From a public health perspective, childhood cancer survivors are a growing population due to dramatic advances in treatment and supportive care that have improved survival for children diagnosed with cancer. Now, over 80% will survive for five or more years and it is estimated that there are approximately 35,000 childhood cancer survivors living in Canada. This proposal will provide much needed childhood cancer cost estimates that can be used in future economic evaluations. We will estimate long-term and phase-specific childhood cancer costs in British Columbia and Ontario (and thus, accounting for more than half of the childhood cancer survivor population in Canada) with a focus on healthcare costs incurred by provincial governments. The results of this work will be important to understand how much we are spending on cancer care for children and how costs differ among treatments and resources. From a health delivery perspective, these findings will be used to describe where our healthcare dollars (i.e., resources) are being spent. Furthermore, by comparing results from two provinces, we will be able to determine how costs are allocated, highlight any differences in patterns and quality of care, and contrast differences in healthcare access and delivery. Our findings can be used by Ministries of Health and cancer care managers to plan for adequate resources and to maximize value. Cost estimates will also be useful for policy makers to plan for future healthcare budgets, and for researchers to conduct future cost-effectiveness analyses.