title: Cost of palliative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) use for bone metastases secondary to prostate cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evaluations of the costs of palliative external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for treatment of bone metastases are limited.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To summarize EBRT lifetime care patterns in deceased men with metastatic prostate cancer treated in a cancer hospital in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of electronic health records identified deceased adult prostate cancer (ICD-9 185.xx) patients with bone metastases (ICD-9 198.5) and who were treated for bone pain and metastasis management with EBRT between January 1, 1995 and December 17, 2012. Common Procedural Terminology codes were used to identify all EBRT episodes (total billed EBRT services; initial and final evaluation) to calculate length of EBRT treatments and per episode costs (2011 US$). Bootstrapping approximated the 95% confidence interval for final cost estimates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  176 men were identified; 19 (10.8%) had bone metastases in >1 site. Eighty-nine men (50.6%) received >1 EBRT episode (range, 1-6; median, 2), with first episode length ranging from 1-44 calendar days (mean, 13.4; SD, 8.4) at a mean cost of $7,084 (SD, $4,028). About 70% of costs were attributable to hospital charges and 30% to physician charges.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Small sample size limits broad applicability to large populations of men with prostate cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Care costs for EBRT constitute one of many costs that should be taken into account when planning for palliative care of prostate cancer and bone metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. nancy.nickman@pharm.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Nancy A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Nickman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Xiangyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology, University of Utah School of Medicine and Huntsman Cancer Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Gaffney
authors.affiliation: Information Technology Services Data Warehouse, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Reed B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Barney
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Biskupiak
authors.affiliation: Amgen Inc, Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
authors.forename: Gary J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Okano
authors.affiliation: Amgen Inc, Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
authors.forename: Vinson C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Amgen Inc, Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arellano
keywords: bone metastasis; health care utilization; health outcome; palliative EBRT; prostate cancer