Health care costs for prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy: treatment and adverse events. By Krahn et al. 2014
Key sentence from the paper: “The economic burden of adverse events… merits consideration in the risks and benefits of ADT.”
For the full abstract, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24940106
Commentary: This study assesses how the management of ADT adverse events influences health care costs for prostate cancer patients on ADT. Among those with single adverse event, a stroke is the costliest. Admittedly (thankfully), strokes are rare. Diabetes is the least costly to manage but it is a more common effect of ADT. Quite often, patients experience multiple adverse events while on ADT. Unquestionably, multiple adverse events can increase the health care costs of being on ADT tremendously.
So what might patients do to avoid both the adverse events themselves and the financial burden of the high cost of dealing with these events. Many of adverse events associated with ADT can be prevented or managed by increasing the amount of exercise and staying on a heart-healthy diet.
Krahn MD, Bremner KE, Luo J, Alibhai SM. 2014. Health care costs for prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy: treatment and adverse events. Current Oncology 21(3):e457-465.