Measuring costs and outcomes of lung cancer

The impact of lung cancer on medical costs is astounding, said Wei Du, PhD, assistant professor of internal medicine. With a grant from the American Cancer Society, she is measuring the costs and treatment outcomes associated with smoking-related lung cancer in metro Detroit.

Through the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Dr. Du is examining 1,475 lung cancer cases that have been logged in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data registry. Dr. Du will analyze the socio-demographic information related to cancer costs and treatments, as a first step toward improving health care services for patients and practice guidelines for clinicians.

This research is particularly significant given Detroit’s high African-American population and Michigan’s ranking as fourth in the nation for the highest number of smokers, said Dr. Du. “It is well known that African Americans have higher incidence rates and poorer outcomes compared to Caucasian Americans. However, very few studies have examined the impact of ethnicity and other socio-demographic factors on lung cancer treatment costs and treatment patterns.”

Questions that Dr. Du will address include:

• What are the facility-based costs and treatment patterns in lung cancer treatment stratified by race?

• How much variation in costs, treatment patterns and outcomes is seen among patients with the same disease stage and histology?

• What factors are most important in determining treatment cots and survival outcome? (socio-demographics, cigarette/alcohol use, medical history, clinical characteristics, treatment options)

• What is a patient’s life expectancy under different treatment approaches and are these treatments cost-effective?