title: Cost of pretherapeutic staging of patients with colorectal cancer metastases in a French population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the economic burden of pretherapeutic staging of patients presenting colorectal cancer metastases.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to estimate the cost of pretherapeutic staging and identify cost determinants for 132 patients presenting colorectal metastases and living in the north-east of France.
  
  
  METHODS
  Staging cost was estimated using direct medical costs from the point of view of the French Health Insurance System. Independent factors were identified using a linear regression model, and bootstrap resampling was used to estimate unbiased standard errors and 95% confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall mean cost for pretherapeutic staging was estimated to be 1534€ [95% CI: 1250€-1818€]. Staging costs increased significantly with the number of medical procedures performed during the staging, and according to health care patterns (in-patient hospital stay versus out-patient episodes, public versus private care).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results could now be used to estimate the impact of new imaging techniques on clinical practices and pretherapeutic staging costs.
authors.affiliation: Inserm, U866, Faculty of Medicine, 7, boulevard Jeanne-d'Arc, 21079 Dijon, France. catherine.lejeune@u-bourgogne.fr
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lejeune
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Logé
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arveux
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Velten
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jolly
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Woronoff-Lemsi
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillemin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000473:pathology*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies