title: Costs of breast cancer treatment prior to the introduction of immune-based therapy in Mexico.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  the aim was to perform a cost analysis on direct data of integral medical care provided to BC patients prior to introduction of immunotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  a total of 633 patients were studied. Direct costs calculations were performed on individual patient data in a subset of 309 randomly selected patients, extrapolating calculations to the universe of 633 patients. Information was obtained for each management process (diagnosis and staging, cancer management, symptoms control, palliative care and follow-up). Costs are expressed in 2008 US dollars (USD) and adjusted to a 3 % discount rate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the clinical stage distribution in the 633 patients was 41, 191, 240 and 58 patients for clinical stages I to IV, respectively; with 103 patients referred from other institutions without staging. The annual costs of care per patient was, in clinical stage I: 6,219,94 USD; stage II: 7,498.04 USD; stage III: 9,610.31 USD; stage IV: 9,917.82 USD; and in patients without staging: 7,504.41 USD. The exact total integral cost according to the universe of BC patients (n = 633) by 2004 was 5,341,805.37 USD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  before the introduction of immune-based therapy costs of care for Mexican women with BC increased with advanced stages do to a significant proportion of patients were diagnosed late.
authors: Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Secretaría de Salud, Distrito Federal, México, Mexico. aameneses@hotmail.com
authors: Abelardo
authors: A
authors: Meneses-García
authors: Teresa
authors: T
authors: Ramírez
authors: Luz
authors: L
authors: Ruiz-Godoy
authors: Erwin
authors: E
authors: Chiquete
authors: Alejandro
authors: A
authors: Mohar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies