Financial Toxicity Among Patients With Breast Cancer Worldwide
“What is the rate of patients incurring financial toxicity as a result of breast cancer care nationally and internationally?”
Financial toxicity (FT) is the negative impact of cost of care on financial well-being. Patients with breast cancer are at risk for incurring high out-of-pocket costs given the long-term need for multidisciplinary care and expensive treatments.
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the pooled rate of financial toxicity for patients with breast cancer was 78.8% in low- and middle-income countries and 35.3% in high-income countries.
These findings suggest that patients with breast cancer worldwide are at risk for financial toxicity; policies designed to offset the burden of direct medical costs, through expansion of health care coverage, and direct nonmedical as well as indirect costs, through interventions such as transportation and childcare facilities, are required to improve the financial health of vulnerable patients with breast cancer.
This article by Anam N. Ehsan, Catherine A. Wu, Alexandra Minasian, Tavneet Singh, Michelle Bass, Lydia Pace, Geoffrey C. Ibbotson, Nefti Bempong-Ahun, Andrea Pusic, John W. Scott, Rania A. Mekary, Kavitha Ranganathan was published by JAMA Network Open.
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