Provider cost of treating oral potentially malignant disorders and oral cancer in Malaysian public hospitals

Oral cancer has been recognized as a significant challenge to healthcare. In Malaysia, numerous patients frequently present with later stages of cancers to the highly subsidized public healthcare facilities. Such a trend contributes to a substantial social and economic burden. This study aims to determine the cost of treating oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) and oral cancer from a public healthcare provider’s perspective. Medical records from two tertiary public hospitals were systematically abstracted to identify events and resources consumed retrospectively from August 2019 to January 2020. The cost accrued was used to estimate annual initial and maintenance costs via two different methods- inverse probability weighting (IPW) and unweighted average. A total of 86 OPMD and 148 oral cancer cases were included. The initial phase mean unadjusted cost was USD 2,861 (SD = 2,548) in OPMD and USD 38,762 (SD = 12,770) for the treatment of cancer. Further annual estimate of initial phase cost based on IPW method for OPMD, early and late-stage cancer was USD 3,561 (SD = 4,154), USD 32,530 (SD = 12,658) and USD 44,304 (SD = 16,240) respectively. Overall cost of late-stage cancer was significantly higher than early-stage by USD 11,740; 95% CI [6,853 to 16,695]; p< 0.001. Higher surgical care and personnel cost predominantly contributed to the larger expenditure. In contrast, no significant difference was identified between both cancer stages in the maintenance phase, USD 700; 95% CI [-1,142 to 2,541]; p = 0.457. A crude comparison of IPW estimate with unweighted average displayed a significant difference in the initial phase, with the latter being continuously higher across all groups. IPW method was shown to be able to use data more efficiently by adjusting cost according to survival and follow-up. While cost is not a primary consideration in treatment recommendations, our analysis demonstrates the potential economic benefit of investing in preventive medicine and early detection.