Treatment Costs and Social Burden of Pancreatic Cancer

Simple Summary According to the forecasts, the share of pancreatic cancer in the structure of gastrointestinal malignancies will increase. This cancer is characterized by high mortality and due to non-specific symptoms, it is mostly diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease. Late detection and the required highly specialized treatment result in an increased economic burden of the disease. PC generates costs both for the health care system, but also indirect costs resulting mainly from work absence caused by the disease. PC is becoming a significant problem from the perspective of limited system resources and the loss of potential GDP. With the progressive aging of the population, where the demographic structure in developed countries is reversed, it is important to keep as many people of working age in the labor market as possible. (1) Background: Pancreatic cancer is the cancer with the third-highest mortality rate, and forecasts indicate its growing share in morbidity. The basis of treatment is inpatient chemotherapy and there is a strong focus on palliative care. (2) Methods: A literature review was conducted based on the rapid review methodology in PubMed and Cochrane databases. The search was supplemented with publications from the snowball search. Qualitative assessment of included publications was performed using AMSTAR2 modified scheme. (3) Results: The review included 17 publications, of which majority concerned direct costs related to the adopted treatment regimen. Most of the publications focused on comparing the cost-effectiveness of drug therapies and the costs of palliative treatment. Other publications concerned indirect costs generated by pancreatic cancer. They particularly focused on the economic burden of lost productivity due to sickness absence. (4) Conclusion: The increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer translates into an increase in the costs of the health care system and indirect costs. Due to the significant share of hospitalization in the health care structure, direct costs are increasing. The inpatient treatment regimen and side effects translate into a loss of productivity for patients with pancreatic cancer. Among gastrointestinal cancers, pancreatic cancer generates the second largest indirect costs, although it has a much lower incidence rate than the dominant colorectal cancer. This indicates a significant problem of the economic burden of this cancer.