Estimation of the stage-wise costs of breast cancer in Germany using a modeling approach

Breast cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous disease representing a substantial economic burden. In order to develop policies that successfully decrease this burden, the factors affecting costs need to be fully understood. Evidence suggests that early-stage BC has a lower cost than a late stage BC. We aim to provide conservative estimates of BC's stage-wise medical costs from German healthcare and the payer's perspective. To this end, we conducted a literature review of articles evaluating stage-wise costs of BC in Germany through PubMed, Web of Science, and Econ Lit databases supplemented by Google Scholar. We developed a decision tree model to estimate BC-related medical costs in Germany using available treatment and cost information. The review generated seven studies; none estimated the stage-wise costs of BC. The studies were classified into two groups: case scenarios (five studies) and two studies based on administrative data. The first sickness funds data study (Gruber et al., 2012) used information from the year 1999 to approach BC attributable cost; their results suggest a range between €3,929 and €11,787 depending on age. The second study (Kreis, Plöthner et al., 2020) used 2011–2014 data and suggested an initial phase incremental cost of €21,499, an intermediate phase cost of €2,620, and a terminal phase cost of €34,513 per incident case. Our decision tree model-based BC stage-wise cost estimates were €21,523 for stage I, €25,679 for stage II, €30,156 for stage III, and €42,086 for stage IV. Alternatively, the modeled cost estimates are €20,284 for the initial phase of care, €851 for the intermediate phase of care, and €34,963 for the terminal phase of care. Our estimates for phases of care are consistent with recent German estimates provided by Kreis et al. Furthermore, the data collected by sickness funds are collected primarily for reimbursement purposes, where the German ICD-10 classification system defines a cancer diagnosis. As a result, claims data lack the clinical information necessary to understand stage-wise BC costs. Our model-based estimates fill the gap and inform future economic evaluations of BC interventions.